Thus They All Died
by Yumi-Tsubato
Summary: "I sent ten invitation letters to the ones I hated the most: America, Russia, England, Canada, France, Italy and his brother, Romano, Germany, Japan and, finally China. The countries were the results of my demise, of my falling. Although I am gone, I am still here, somehow, and I will have my vengeance." VILLAIN POV. Character death, violence - no specific pairing besides GerIta
1. Scattered Invitations

_Thus, They All Died._

Ten little nations went out to dine,

One chocked his little self, and then there were nine.

Nine little nations with a new playmate,

He played too fiercely, and then there were eight.

Eight little nations questioning their brethren,

One discovered the fatal answer, and then there were seven.

Seven little nations on an island in the tropics,

The sun scorched one to death, and then there were six.

Six little nations just trying to survive,

One went mad, and then there were five.

Five little nations, one of them ignored,

He wandered off to find the truth, and there were four.

Four little nations hiding with an empty pantry,

The loss and hunger got to one, and then there were three.

Three little nations in need of rescue,

One tried to escape, and then there were two.

Two little nations left with a gun,

He sacrificed himself, and then there was one.

One little nation left all alone,

His end drew to a close, he should have known.

Thus, they all died.

Within the first few hours of the sixth of august, I sent exactly ten invitation letters to the ones I hate the most: America, Russia, England, Canada, France, Italy and his brother, Romano, Germany, Japan and, finally China. The countries were the results of my demise, of my falling. Although I am gone, I am still here, somehow, and I will have my vengeance.

Thus, they will all die.

* * *

**Prologue of my newest series based off **_And Then There Were None_** by **Agatha Christie**.**

**Hope you Enjoy ;p The first chapter should soon pop up. In the meantime, I want to know the order in which the nations mentionned will die.**


	2. A Deadly Feast

As expected, my hated guests all arrived precisely three days later, some a little later than others but that was to be expected. They all stood in the lobby of my spectacular home, waiting to be greeted by a host that would never show. Some of them seemed quite sceptic about the summoning they received spontaneously, others seemed carefree, without worry for it was only the highly trusted that knew about their existence.

"Eww! You were invited too, Iggy?" America screeched annoyingly loudly.

"Shut up, git. You don't want to be rude in our guest's home, now do you?" England schooled quickly.

I agreed.

But would this politeness win me over and encourage me not to kill them all.

Definitely not.

That being the only thing to pervade the deafening silence, quietness returned to all as did wonder. I was sure some of them grew impatient but hid it very well considering there was some limit of respect that needed to be shown to the host.

I counted them.

China.

France.

Japan.

America.

England.

Italy.

Germany.

Romano.

Russia.

And…the last one?

Right, Canada.

Again, I counted them and then, when I finished, I did it again. This crazy obsession of clearly verifying that all ten hated guests were actually there overcame me and grew more powerful the less I wanted to halt it. However, I couldn't spend the following days just counting them again and again, my plan, my perfect crime would need to take place eventually.

From where I stood, I opened the doors to the dinning room. All of them seemed perplex, how could a door be opened without any one there to do it? And they wondered – I assumed – as they entered the room and found, yet again, no host to greet them. Instead, they found a perfectly welcoming dinning room with a beautifully prepared table. At each seat, there was an envelope.

Of course, the sceptics would soon speak up if I didn't do anything to manifest my presence.

"Dear guests," I announced from my hidden location, my voice booming through the room, "Do apologize my lack of presence, I'm awfully busy with some unexpected…troubles. My servants will be preparing the feast, until then, enjoy the living room directly parallel to this room."

Without further ado, I opened the door leading to the living room. My guests cautiously walked in, observing every detail of the impeccable room before finding the glasses of wine placed on the small table, surrounded by three sofas.

"Well it's about fucking time we get _some_ service." Romano snorted as he made a b-line for the wine.

"Hm, no need to be so _aggressive_ Roma, our host has told us the reason of his delay." France chimed in defensively.

Thank you, France.

Romano took a glass of wine and cautiously drank from it, as if it were poisoned. Though the thought crossed my mind, I hadn't dared do it just yet.

"So does anyone know the name of this mysterious host?" Germany finally asked; I was wondering when they would get curious about me, "My invitation was signed _from an old acquaintance._"

"Ah! Ours too!" Italy added quickly, probably including his brother when he said _ours_.

Of course their letters were signed _from an acquaintance_. They were the main result of my demise, they were the ones I hated the most, the ones I would savour once their last breathes would escape their dying lips.

Chills ran through my bones. I needed to calm myself or I would commit a mistake.

"Really?" Japan queried, "Mine just said _from a brethren_."

One by one, they all started saying from whom they had received the letters, perplexed gazes forming as most realised that the pen name I used for each letter varied. Finally, the announcement ended with America's idiocy.

As expected.

"Pff. Mine said _from U.N. Owen_." America smirked, "I have no idea who that is."

Canada, who had thus far been quiet, spoke, "America." He began quietly but found himself in need of repeating himself a little louder to get everyone's attention, "Isn't that…"

Oh, so he remembered.

"Isn't that what?" America asked curiously.

"Don't you remember that novel you wrote?" Canada asked, a little frustrated, "You gave me a ton of copies so I decided to educate my younger population on how a good mystery novel was written*."

"Oh right!" America exclaimed, "And Then There Were None, right?"

Canada nodded, "Don't you remember one of the pen names the killer used for one of his guests?" I noticed that Canada slowly started to slow down as he realised that something wasn't right, but the obliviousness of his brother got him back to normal speed, "U.N. Owen."

"What does that have to do with anything?" France asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" England snickered, he was probably proud that he figured it out on his own, "U.N. Owen can also be seen as _Unknown_."

"When you think about it…" Germany spoke slowly, "All of the pen names used for sending the invitations were foreign to all of us."

"Haha! I get what you did there!" America laughed loudly.

"Shut up America." All of the others said in unison, this brought a smile to my face.

As much as I would have enjoyed watching them slowly come to the conclusion that there was a problem and that they needed to leave my little death island, I couldn't allow that to happen just yet. There were two individuals that had scarcely spoken thus far that needed to be dealt with soon, one more than the other.

I opened the doors that connected the living room to the dinning room once again, the feast was ready for savouring and some of the little nations were hungrier than others. As they all advanced towards the food, the two who had been the most quiet stayed behind.

"Something is wrong, da?" Russia asked.

China, who had been tense ever since he arrived in the home barely reacted, "I don't know, aru." He responded, "But something doesn't feel right…"

"Because we all received invitations from different senders?" the Russian questioned. "Wouldn't that just mean that there's more than one host, da?"

"No, aru," China answered correctly, "You heard him speak earlier, there's only one of him."

"Hey? What are you slow pokes doing?" America called from the dinning room, "The food's going to get cold."

"All I know is that I don't like this, aru." China concluded before advancing in the next room accompanied with Russia.

I closed the door and spoke to my guests once more. "Pardon the delay," I began, I paused as I noticed they had all been seated in the proper places but now my eyes were locked on China. "As you have noticed, there is quite a feast for you all on this table, perhaps you would say there is too much food, but I'm quite sure a certain one will eat a much larger portion than the others."

Everyone looked at America who simply smirked.

"Now, my chefs are composed of the most talented culinary souls on the planet and have prepared for you all, an _Ancient Feast_ as I would like to call it." I began, a grin started to spread on my face. When would China notice? When would he remember? Soon enough, that was assured. "Here you will taste different elements of the past, from all corners of the world, when you were all _one_. When there was only _one_."

They all admired the food and the beautiful way it was displayed on the table resembling clocks, ancient and new. China's troubled gaze was fixated on a bowl of noodles, it's garnishes displayed to resemble a solar clock.

He was starting to put the pieces together.

"I pray you all enjoy a piece of the past," I concluded, "I will not be able to join you for my troubles have grown but will soon be dealt with. I do hope you will be a tad more patient. Until then, you may all feast."

Without as much of a second thought, all but China dug in and greedily took what they wanted to taste most. As expected, once again, the bowl of noodles placed in front of China was neglected, left for him to stare at it and try to connect the final dot.

He was so close.

So very close.

"Aren't you going to eat?" Japan asked as he looked over to his cousin.

China snapped out of his trance and nodded. Slowly, he reached out for the bowl and took a large portion of it, he carefully took some of the garnishes, one in particular that I was _dying_ for him to take. Cautiously, he ate just one noodle, inspecting to make sure it was safe, he hadn't grown as carefree as the others.

As expected.

The taste must have pleased him dearly for, with every bite, he grew more and more careless until, finally, it was fatal. As he placed the fatal amount of food in his mouth, he noticed that the cards I had left on the table were not simple papers indicating the seat arrangement. He opened his and read the content inside.

Perhaps it was shock that had caused him to swallow abruptly but soon, he began to choke. His throat began to cave in; absorbing air for survival was made practically impossible until it actually was impossible. His skin paled and soon turned blue from the lack of oxygen, the others around flailed and panicked as they tried to conclude what was wrong with the eldest, why was he choking? But, before anyone could attempt to save him, he fell over his chair and died.

Thus, one was eliminated.

Only nine more to go.

Sickening silence reigned over the room, all stared at the corpse of their comrade. None of them knew that they could die, but that was only because they lacked my knowledge, they lacked my hatred.

"W-what happened…?" Italy stuttered.

Adorable.

But his innocence would soon vanish.

"He just…choked and…" Japan couldn't continue.

Amusing.

"Died…" France finished, "He just died."

"Why…how?"

They were all at a loss of words. They couldn't understand. They were so foolish. Ever so foolish. And this foolishness would inevitably cost them.

"Was there something wrong with the noodles?" Romano asked, he must have been concerned for himself; he had taken some shortly after China had. "It was the only thing he ate…"

"Cyanide." Russia answered; my he was sharp. "China was poisoned with cyanide. He choked to death."

Romano subconsciously reached for his throat.

Just as I began to wonder when they would notice that note laying on the ground, not far from China's head, Japan found it. He reached over and picked it up, his paled ever so lightly but his concerned expression didn't go unnoticed.

"Ten little nations went out to dine, one choked his little self, and then there were nine." Japan read aloud.

And with that line, their predestined death was sealed. I would have my vengeance and I was having my vengeance. All those who had wronged me, who had caused me to disappear would face my wrath. China was the eldest, we had spent countless time together, yet he dismissed me so easily and forgot me rapidly, neglected me in my time of need. He had needed to be the first one to leave, or else he would have remembered too easily and that would have been my second demise.

* * *

*I first read about the book And Then There Were None from English class (I go to a French school) because we were learning about the components of a good mystery novel.

* * *

**Right so chapter 1 is shorter than I wanted it to be but I had to get it out soon.**

**Anyways, chapter 2 will take more time to get out but it should be longer.**

**So yeah, who do you think will die next?**

**BTW: Italy and Germany will speak more, they are the main characters, I'm just having a hard time putting them in a situation where they speak a lot.**

**SEE YOU NEXT CHAPTER!**


	3. A Game To Die For

**Don't forget to review.**

**I want to hear who you think dies next!**

* * *

A suffocating silence fell upon the dining room as all of my guests concluded that they were being targeted and killed off one by one. If they continued to base themselves off the book, they would realise that the ones who stayed alive the longest would be the ones having to endure their sanity slipping away the longest. Then again, they would probably all lose it soon enough knowing that they could be the next ones to die.

"Where did he get that…?" Italy asked, he was probably the most shocked of them all.

The little twat.

"The seat indicators…" Germany mumbled, they're also envelops.

All of the nations walked to their own seat indicators – for they had left their seat to gawk at the corpse of their so recently murdered comrade – and wearily opened them.

"Go in thy native innocence, rely On what thou hast of virtue, summon all, For God towards thee hath done his part, do thine*." America read aloud first.

"Mine says the same thing…" England stated.

Soon his statement was followed by those of the others claiming the same thing, that their letters contained the same message.

"Isn't this a clue…?" France asked, stating the obvious.

"What does it mean?" Romano queried as he examined the paper.

"Well…in normal English this would translate to: _Leave in innocence and rely on the qualities you have, all of them, because God did his part towards you, now do yours._" England informed as he re-read the poem. "Which means that the murder wants us to figure out who he or she is…"

England's detective skills could become a good _virtue_ for he and his companions in this situations, but I doubt that the world's famous detective** will be able to outsmart this…play…

"Or try…" Japan mumbled, everyone gave him an odd look, "What? Isn't it obvious that he or she is slowly killing us off? China's death is enough of proof but to confirm it would be the letter he had. It starts with ten little nations and ends with nine, that means the poem continues and so do the deaths."

It was true and the others probably knew it too, even before Japan had said anything, they might just not have wanted to believe it. But someone had said it now and they couldn't turn a blind eye to that fact anymore, even so I would have told them myself but Japan saved my breathe.

What a good, smart, sharp fellow.

Of course, that would not excuse him from the wrong he committed towards me.

"What should we do?" Italy asked concerned.

Of course, the little bastard would rely on others and not think on his own. He's far from similar to his grandfather on the scale of intellect, Rome would have easily assessed the situation and found a way to get his cohort to safety immediately…perhaps, in the end, this was in my favour….

"Maybe we should put one primary person in charge…" Germany suggested, "If we think about it, nothing is going to get done if we all have an input to it so we should elect someone that thinks before acting and that no one would generally argue with."

"Got it," America said stepping up, "I'll take charge."

"Shut up America." England schooled quickly.

"I vote Germany." Japan stated.

"Me too." Italy chimed.

"Eh…I vote for the potato bastard as well…" Romano grumbled as if he didn't care, but it was evident he clearly did for he stated his opinion.

The rest of the nations exchanged looks, probably because they didn't trust Germany all that much due to him being the supposed cause for all World Wars that had occurred thus far.

"Da, fine." Russia said, "I think Germany is best placed for that."

Russia was oddly serious and the other nations seemed to share my opinion but they probably rationalised that Russia had felt some level of fear, I, on the other hand, assumed it was the loss of China that had shaken him. But it's not like I can read thoughts.

"Right…" England cleared his throat breaking the silence, "Then I guess it is best for Germany to take lead in this situation."

There were no further complaints except for a faint half hearted protest on the part of America.

"Okay, since we're following my lead," Germany began, "I think we should move China to a different location for the time being. We were all told that we were to spend the night which means we all have room, so I suggest we move China to his room. We'll then have a proper meeting in the living room."

Everyone nodded thinking it was a suitable decision. Japan was the one to lean down and close the eyes of his cousin; only I was the one who noticed a faint glimmer in his eyes as he did so. Helped by Russia, Germany carried China to the up floor of my mansion and soon found the ten rooms that was destined to be their resting place.

Quickly they investigated the room as if they would actually find me lurking there, hidden under the bed like a monster or in the closet as the boogieman. Thinking that the room was inspected well enough, they abandoned the room with faint, hopeless prayers such as 'rest in peace' and 'your death won't be in vain'.

Hopeless.

They retreated the living room where the other nations were chatting anxiously. They had already begun speculating which of them could be up to such a crafty thing and have all the right motives, though no one specific came to mind because nothing they hypothesized added up.

"Quiet." Germany ordered, only Italy and Japan obeyed on command.

"Silence!" He roared, this time all shut their mouths and looked at him. Russia walked in the silence to take a seat and thus left Germany to be the only one standing. Now he was intellectually similar to his grandfather…though he wouldn't necessarily remember. "Now that China is at peace in a room in this…place, we need to assess the situation. One of us has just been murdered and the cause of death was cyanide, clearly our host has it in for us. Now I know that you all began to throw in ideas to who our murderer could be and I would like to hear the results."

"There are no results," America stated bitterly, "Everyone we thought up didn't match in motives and choice."

"Explain." Germany commanded.

"Well it can't be Spain because I'm here." Romano began, "He's also good friends with France and Prussia, your brother, so it doesn't help to add you in the equation. Also, we can't think of a possible reason to why Spain would want us all dead since he holds no grudge against any of us."

"That's true." Germany agreed. "Next."

"It was Prussia," France continued, "But he was dismissed for relatively the same reasons as Spain. You're his brother, I'm his friend, he's fond of Italy and Canada."

"Then we thought about Korea," Japan added, "But Korea was hopelessly in love with China and is good friends with Canada-san. If the two had not been present he would have been a plausible suspect."

"Right. Anyone else?" Germany asked.

"If you think about the others, they just don't make sense." England stated, he sounded annoyed, "Hungary adores Italy too much and she's very fond of you too, so it can't be her. As crazy as Belarus is – no offence – she wouldn't have included her own brother in the chaos about to unfold or go to the lengths of actually killing one of us, so it can't be her either. Ukraine is a sweet girl with no malevolent intent, even after all the struggles she's been through which puts her out of the equation as well. As for the Baltics, they wouldn't dare rebel against Russia, any of them, and I doubt they have the brains to conjure up such a complex situation and even then, why the rest of us? Cuba might have made sense, if none of us were here except for America. Poland is too…well Poland to come up with this and so is any other country you could mention."

"Logically," Canada began breaking his silence, "If it had to be anyone…it'd be one of us."

Silence weighed in the room, almost suffocating. From my location I could laugh to my heart's content without worry that I'd ever be found out. There was no way I'd ever be found out either way; but how amusing would this series of events start to be once they start suspecting themselves.

"Ludicrous." England barked, "When would any of us have the time to slip in cyanide into China's food? Besides, it was a buffet, and others ate the same noodles China did before his death."

Well, my answer to that would be extreme luck, which had been the case.

"It could have happened when none of us were looking." France suggested, "Who sat next to China?"

"Japan and I." Russia answered.

"All right, then all that's left to do is pat them down," France concluded with a mischievous grin, "Whoever has the cyanide is our murderer, if both of them are clear, it means that none of them are the killer or that they discarded the evidence when no one was looking."

"Right, America check Russia, I'll check Japan." Germany instructed.

France pouted sadly, which made me laugh. How enjoyable that these fools were able to act as if the situation wasn't such a big deal and mock important decisions. Though this would soon change, they were going to start grovelling in fear and paranoia. They would soon start to suffer insanity and suspicion if it was the last thing I'd do.

"Nothing." America said, "I even checked his shoes."

"Same." Germany announced, "Seeing as none of you protested, it makes me believe one of two things, you're innocent or you're good at keeping your cool when you could possibly be discovered."

"We didn't do it." Russia said plainly speaking for both him and Japan who nodded in agreement.

"That doesn't really matter all that much," Germany stated, "The only two that could have possibly killed China didn't carry the murder weapon with them. I strongly believe that it isn't either of them but we can't necessarily prove it. Thus, I suggest that we venture in pairs of three constantly to assure our safety. The first group will be America, Russia and England; the second will be Canada, France and Romano; the third and finally group will be Japan, Italy and I."

"Hold on, I don't like the group arrangements." Romano objected, "I want to stay with my _fratello_ because he will get completely lost without me."

Italy only seemed torn between choosing his brother or Germany, though, for his safety, it would have been wise for him to stay with Germany. Germany, on the other hand, seemed troubled on whether he should comply or not with Romano's demands.

"What do you think?" Germany asked Italy.

Italy paused for a moment and looked at the both of them, "I think…I will stay with my _fratello_…" he answered slowly, as if he were unsure of his decision.

"Hey, now that we're changing groups and all, I have an objection!" America stated, "I don't want to stay with the stupid Commie bastard."

"I'm not a Communist country anymore." Russia pointed out.

"Doesn't matter, I don't like him,"

"You don't have a choice, America." Germany replied, "You're the only one strong enough to beat Russia if he ever were the one behind the murders and were to attempt something."

America was about to object but realised that the statement was true and closed his mouth. He probably figured that even though he couldn't change groups, it didn't mean he had to enjoy himself, though there should have been nothing enjoyable about the situation.

"Right, the new groups are now Canada, Romano and Italy," Germany corrected before moving on, "And Japan, France and I. Now that things are settled, we have to figure out how to escape this place. Now how did everyone get here?"

Without any exception, all arrived by plane due to the low, rocky ocean ground rendering it impossible to reach the island by boat.

"Now I assume that all of your planes have left and are to return within three days such as mine?" Germany asked, all nodded, "Since the facts seem to be against us, it almost seems assured that we are going to have to try to find a way to survive in this death trap for three days. However, there is hope that there is a radio we can use to contact any other countries or people nearby the island."

Despite the fact that Germany had a very good idea that could have saved them all; he had clearly forgotten that there was no land within miles of the island.

"I don't see any reason for any of us to separate just yet," Germany stated once more, "We should now head to the airstrip and locate the building that holds the radio to communicate with planes in the surrounding area. Everyone should keep an eye around and be as vigilant as possible."

I watched them as they left the living room and passed through the heavy, oak doors of my domain to be greeted by the fading sunlight. They walked around the house and some gave it odd looks as if they were seeing the gates of Hell – which might have been the equivalent of what they were seeing. After a brief, ten minute – give or take – walk they reached the runaway and located the shed at the far end which was most likely the communication center.

I eagerly waited from my location. I wanted them to reach it already. I wanted to get the show on the road. I wanted to see their scared, pathetic faces as they saw what I had left for them. I wanted to hear their murmurs of despair and anxiety as they realised just how mad this whole thing was.

Mad!

I wanted to see it so bad, and I didn't want to wait.

But I didn't have a choice. As painful as a wait might be, the anticipation of its end would make the hinted thing all the sweeter. Wait was also a mean to have someone lose control and I had to quickly regain mine as to not make a false step. I would not falter.

No.

Not until my vengeance was achieved.

And so my guests – victims – reached the shed and opened its rusty doors only to find the mess that I had left for them. The radio and other communication devices were broken to irreparable bits that formed a message.

"Let's play a game…" France read slowly.

All their uneasy faces were priceless and much better than I had anticipated. It would make our game all the sweeter.

"You try to survive, and I try to kill you." he finished, "PS: Bonus points if you figure out who I am."

Russia picked up the letter I had left on the ground and glared at it as if he could intimidate it to reveal my identity. It might have worked if the paper had been an animated object but that was – sadly for him – not the case.

He flipped the page over and discovered my final message.

"PSS: Boom."

There had been a moment of silence once more but this time, everyone froze. They all held their breaths and didn't dare to move until they heard the faint ticking sound that confirmed the presence of a bomb inside the building.

"Get ou—"

Sorrowfully for Germany, he didn't manage to finish his order or desperate cry – it was probably a mix of both – before the bomb blew the shed to bits and send my tortured guests flying through the air.

As I had planned, it had only been fatal for one of them.

Italy landed on his face and was probably the one that was the less wounded from the explosion, the only significant wound he had suffered from was a mildly deep cut in his left shoulder.

He looked to his left and found his brother groaning as he tried to push off a large pillar of wood that crushed his right leg, keeping him pinned in place.

"_Fratello_!" He cried and leaped over to help his brother. Regardless is petty force, Italy managed to push off the plank of wood that kept his brother prisoner, "Are you alright…?"

"I think…my leg is broken…" Romano groaned in pain.

Italy looked around troubled, "Don't worry; I'm sure Germany will know what to do…"

"This fucking sucks…" Romano growled, "Why does this fucking psycho want _us_ dead!?"

Italy didn't answer because he didn't know what to answer. He was probably wondering the same thing but pushed that thought aside when he stood to look through the black smoke for some others, notably Germany, to help.

"Germany!" Italy called, "Germany!"

After a few moments, he finally got an answer, "I'm alright." Through the smoke, Germany limped helping Japan walk towards the other two; Japan had received a heavy blow to the head and was bleeding. He might have had a concussion. "How are you two doing?"

"Romano says his leg might be broken…" Italy responded sparing a weary glance at his wincing brother.

"_Scheiße_***!" Germany cussed, "Some of the others are probably wounded as well…We need to regroup before we move on…"

Just then, America along with Canada, England and Russia emerged through the smoke. They weren't too badly wounded; Canada's arm was bloodied from a cut and his knees were torn from sliding on the concrete after his fall. It was relatively the same case for America though he had additional, small cuts all over his face. As for Russia, the back of his head was bleeding but the country didn't make too much of it, besides that his clothes were roughed up and just barely ragged. England seemed to be the worst off, he had a large gash on his forehead that was gushing out blood which blinded his left eye, his knees and elbows were cut up and bleeding as well but it remained that the British fellow had only been cut a few times. Nothing more, nothing less.

"No need to re-group." America announced, "We're here."

Germany smiled in relief and let out a sigh.

"Wait." Japan said, "Where's France?"

They wandered around the debris for a moment, calling out their companion's name until one of them spotted golden locks buried within a pile of large, broken pieces of wood. They hurriedly pried the debris from their friend and gasped at the sight laid before them. What they had found was merely a part of France.

His head to be more specific.

The rest of his body was scattered all over the runaway, he had had the misfortune of standing directly over the bomb when it exploded this blowing him to bits. It was perfect. He was the next to die and he died, no others had been killed off by accident and so I praised my own intelligence and precision as well as luck to have been able to pull off such a stunt so marvellously.

I was clearly superior.

I would win this game.

Canada broke into tears and fell to his bloody knees. He reached to feel the golden locks of the man who had raised him but was stopped by his older brother. America shook his head slowly and pulled Canada up.

"Trust me bro," He said quietly, which was rather odd, "It's easier to let go this way."

He covered his brother's gaze and led him away from the horrid sight. It was then that they discovered the message of fire I had placed for them.

Actually, I had written it before hand in oil, once the fire would hit it, my message would become visible.

"Nine little nations with a new playmate, He played too fiercely, and then there were eight." America mumbled incredulously. He turned to face the others that bore the same expression, "This guy planned this…and he didn't even come close to fucking up…"

* * *

*it's from the poem Paradise Lost by John Milton.

** Reference to the fact that the one who wrote Sherlock Holmes was British

*** Shit (in German)

* * *

**I forgot to mention that my little sister helped me out a lot to come up with the whole poem because I was having a bitch of a time figuring out all the verses...**

**Anyways...I don't think this should be rated T anymore...give me your opinion please.**

**I also want to know who you think dies next!**

**SEE YOU NEXT CHAPTER!**


	4. A Fatal Answer

**So I took a while to upload a chapter to this story because I hit a general writer's block and was feeling unmotivated to write (I was trying to write another chapter to The Asylum) so anyways, another death this chapter...**

**ENJOY**

* * *

My tormented guests returned to the living room believing it to be being the only safe haven in the living hell I created for them after gathering the limbs of their fallen comrade, France, and placing them in the room next to China's. They sat in silence at first, probably confused with my motives and troubled by the deaths of their comrades. The sun was almost completely set and the room was darkening rapidly, almost to the point of not being able to see the faces of the others before or next to themselves. No one spoke, not even Germany who had been voted the lead, because everyone was too busy thinking individually.

"I don't get it…" America groaned, finally breaking the silence, "How is he doing it…?"

"It's obvious that he prepared everything beforehand." England stated bitterly.

Oh? What was this?

Unless my eyesight was playing tricks on me, I could deduce that, with the hint of hurt in his tone and his watery eyes, the death of the romantic France troubled England more than he showed. How amusing.

"Not that." America sighed, "How does he know how to kill us? Weren't we supposed to be near immortal at best?"

"That's true…" Russia agreed, "I must admit that I ponder the answer to that same question. The only time I have seen a country _die_ was when their independence was taken away after an invasion of the sort or when the population rebelled and overturned the government to establish anarchy."

"Well if we base ourselves off the events that occurred," Germany began, his eyes were shut as he concentrated on thinking as he spoke, "Both of our friends were killed by such…mortal ways…I mean, I've never seen any of us be killed any other way than Russia had described, so how was it that cyanide and an explosion was sufficient to kill two of us?"

"In logic's defence, France was dismembered in the explosion." Romano stated harshly to some of the other country's discontent.

"Even so, as America said, we're supposed to be near immortal." Germany reminded, "There are limited ways beings like us can die and human deaths like those have never applied to us before because we aren't human."

"If I had to guess anything, there was something else in the food." England stated as everyone turned a gaze to him, they clearly wanted him to elaborate as did I. "What I mean to say is that maybe, other than poison, there was another solution in the food that made us mortal or just vulnerable to mortal deaths. Didn't you notice that, whenever we were in war and were injured, our wounds always healed rapidly? France would have logically returned to life after a few long years of recovery but his body and harsh wounds showed no sign of…"

"Auto-repair?" America suggested.

"Sure." England agreed with a shrug.

"Well there's only one way to find out." Russia concluded with a heavy sigh. He stood and walked over to America, pulled out something from his sleep and slashed at America's face.

However, the latter had managed to dodge the blow partially, "What the hell!?" He cried angrily, "You psycho! Why would you do that!?"

"We need light," Russia stated, "We can't see whether or not the wound on America's cheek is healing or not."

Before any of them stood, I lit the electronic lights in the room which rendered everyone silence and perplex. They must have been wondering how I could have done such a thing so instantaneously.

"Right…" Germany mumbled slowly before tearing his gaze from the lights and resting it on America's face, as did the others.

All of their eyes widened at once, the wound was visibly small and, in other times, should have healed almost instantaneously but it was still fresh and showed no signs of healing. And that was normal because, as England suggested, I had made a mix of a potion – if you will – that made nations mortal for a time span for three days. Said mixture was never a guarded secret by anyone but merely forgotten knowledge that had not been bothered to be past down. Excluding me, the only other that could have known about it would have been China if he wouldn't have been dead, his body decaying in a room on the superior floor.

"So we're…mortal…" Italy mumbled incredulously.

"How is this even possible?" America asked irritated as he passed his fingers over the small gash on his cheek.

"It doesn't matter anymore," Germany stated grimly as he began to take charge once more, "What matters now is staying alive and to do that we need to stick in large pairs and be as vigilant as possible. Seeing as we're now eight, we should separate in two groups of four at most. The new groups will be Japan, Italy, Romano and I and America, England, Russia and…uh…"

"Canada…" Canada sighed.

"Now what I want us to do is investigate the premises." Germany began instructing, "My group will investigate the upper floor whereas the rest of you will investigate the lower floor. If you ever discover a basement, note the entrance point and wait for us to return, I'd prefer all of us entering at once to have more eyes covering the area."

Each nodded understanding Germany's reasoning and stood. Russia lead the way for his group while Germany lead his own. The German instructed Japan to keep an eye on the back and the Italian brothers to cover both sides as to not be surprised from any direction. The four Axis allies walked up the polished, wooden stairs before arriving on the second floor.

Two options were offered to them; they could go right or left. Instead of separating into two smaller groups, Germany decided they would all go right first and then left. Thus, they went right where they found five rooms and one large salon with a bar and a pool table. They searched each of the six rooms meticulously as to be more than sure they didn't miss a spot where I could be hiding.

Then, as Germany said they would, they went left and found the five remaining rooms – one containing the body of China and France – and a bathroom like room that contained just one shower head and a large tub that was really just a pool where residents could bathe and clean themselves in all their leisure. Nevertheless, my guest had not the permission to do so and probably didn't even consider the thought for the simple reason of their minds being preoccupied by the deaths of their friends as well as the danger in which their lives laid.

The four returned to the main floor, somewhat relieved to have found nothing but worried for the same reason, eager to hear the results of the investigation of the beta team. They rejoined them as they returned to the living room in a pair, empty handed.

"What did you find?" Germany asked hastily.

"We found no one and no murder weapon." England answered, "But we found a pantry in the kitchen filled with food, some of them are in boxes or cans so they couldn't have been tampered with without letting evident trace of being unsealed. Besides that, there was another living room and dining room, though they were less formal than the ones we were introduced to. Also, there's no basement."

"Then…does that mean we're alone?" Italy asked.

"Not necessarily," Russia answered, "We haven't checked outside yet, save for the runaway that blew up and killed France."

"It's too dark to do it now and so I suggest we retreat to our respected rooms. It won't do us any good to continue thinking and trying to solve the mystery without any sleep." Germany stated.

"But…who's going to sleep in the room next to the dead bodies…?" Italy asked slowly.

Silence invaded all of them, no one wanted to sleep in said room but some one would have to.

"I'll just share a room with my _fratello_." Romano stated solving the problem.

"_Nein, _you won't." Germany objected, "Although we have no reason to suspect either of you, I can't allow it because you might be in cahoots."

"Pff. _Cahoots._" America smirked to himself earning a slap from his brother and England.

"I'll sleep next to them." Germany concluded in a noble way. "I will also be the last one to enter my room, please be sure to lock your doors as to not be surprised by an unexpected visitor."

Everyone nodded, understanding, and made a b line for the door but Germany stopped them once more.

"Before we actually get to bed," Germany began, he placed himself between the seven other nations and the door, "I would like to have everything you have in your pockets that could potentially be used as a weapon or a tool to break into a locked room."

"Umm…I'm not comfortable with that one." America admitted.

"Da, neither am I." Russia added.

"It's to assure everyone's security." Germany explained, "I don't want anyone dying during the night and if someone does, I'd have all the weapons and so I would immediately be the one suspected."

"I think that's exactly _why_ we're not comfortable." America argued. "What if you are the killer? We'd be giving you the tools you need to kill us all."

"When viewed in that light, I understand your hesitation," Germany admitted, "But all I can really ask is that you trust me and believe me when I say I'm not the one behind this and that none of you will die during the night if you give me all of your weapons."

There was a moment of tense silence and hesitation on the part of everyone.

"Ah, bloody hell." England growled as he walked forward and emptied his pockets. He handed a pocket knife to Germany. "That's all I had on me."

"I'm going to have to pat you down…" Germany informed.

With a sigh, England raised his arms and spread his legs as was the routine for a pat down. He waited as Germany finished and moved on when signalled to. The next to stand forward was Canada who declared he had nothing and, after a pat down, it was confirmed that he had been telling the truth. The next to follow was Italy, then there was Romano who had been carrying a pocket knife as well and after Japan who had some shuriken and nun-chucks to the surprise of most.

The only two that now remained were Russia and America who both hesitated deeply to give away the weapons they carried that made them feel safe. Both ended up stepping forward at the same time and giving away the dangerous items in their possession. America handed his revolver and the few extra magazines he always brought as a precaution.

"Oh? You had a gun too?" Russia stated more than asked as he handed his own gun and supplementary bullets.

How amusing these paranoid fellows were…

Russia then pulled out a hunting knife and a double sided blade.

"A bit excessive, don't you think?" America asked with a smirk as he pulled out two grenades and one Swiss army knife.

"Says the man with grenades." Russia smiled darkly before returning his attention to Germany who was shocked by the weapons he received, "That's all I had on me."

Germany set the weapons aside temporarily as he gave a pat down to Russia and then America, he discovered a small razor on the both of them and schooled them for trying to hide such potentially life threatening things from him in said situation before sending them off to bed.

Once alone in the living room, Germany looked around and gathered the objects slowly. He walked up the stairs eyeing everything around him as if they would suddenly grow legs and arms and attack him but, of course, that didn't happen. He reached his room down the eerie hallway and stared at the closed doors of the rooms that held the bodies of China and France.

He must have been thinking about how sad it was to see his companions perish in such an abominable way and then thought about trying to uncover the truth behind me. Though it was to my knowledge that, if he ever tried to figure out my identity he wouldn't succeed without my revealing my face for you see, I was far too clever but they would realise that soon.

He pushed his door open and inspected his room thoroughly again, out of precaution before placing the weapons in the nightstand's drawers next to his bed. Then, he left his room and checked one by one if all had locked their rooms as he had instructed. He was surprised when he successfully turned the knob to one of the rooms and found Italy staring out the window, sitting on his bed.

"Italy, you need to close your door." He began strictly, "What if I had been the murderer?"

Italy's eyes seemed vacant which seemed to bother Germany.

"Italy?"

"It's weird…" Italy finally mumbled, "We've all done horrible things to one another but always forgave ourselves…or maybe…we were just lying…"

Germany evidently felt a pang of sympathy for Italy, "It's hard to say…" Germany said shifting his gaze to the ground, "Only a fool smiles when he's in pain and I guess at some point we were all fools because, when we were asked to forgive and forget, we weren't ready to do so. However, I believe that, at some point, no matter how painful the wounds were when they were inflicted and how long they lasted or seem to have, we forgave one another."

"But it has to be one of us…" Italy stated as he glanced at Germany who exchanged his stare, "We're the only ones on this island…"

"We don't know that just yet but it seems to be headed that way…" Germany admitted painfully, "But I don't see how any of us would have the latent of actually eliminating each other. Let's face it, we're basically all siblings who bicker, fight, cry but then forgive and love."

Italy broke into a smile, warmth filling the room and a blush appearing on Germany's cheeks, "That's true, hun?" he agreed and giggled to himself. "I hope it's not one of us either…"

"Tomorrow we'll search the rest of the island and see what we find," Germany informed in the hopes of raising the Italian's morals, "If we don't find anything we'll gather the material necessary to construct some sort of radio to contact any civilisation that could come to our aid. Until then, I guess…"

"We'll just have to stay alive…" Italy finished; sadness unmistakable in his tone.

Germany forced a smile, "Sleep now. And lock your door."

The German took a step back outside the room, he clearly had not realised he had stepped into the room since he was clearly confused on the matter. Italy strolled from his bed to the door and began closing it but stopped half way.

"_Grazie, Doitsu_." He said jumping to his toes to kiss his friend's cheeks.

Germany blushed greatly and struggled to stay calm, "D-don't forget to lock…" he stuttered dumbly like a love-struck fool.

Without further word, Italy closed the door and locked it audibly. Germany stood before the closed door for a few more seconds before reluctantly walking away. He checked the remaining doors before heading back to his own room and locking himself safe. Then, like everyone else had, he laid on his bed and stared at the ceiling, sleep evading him.

All of the nations did so and refused to fall asleep. They were clearly nervous and decided to wait a sufficient amount of time before concluding that the others had probably fallen asleep before attempting sleep themselves except for one. Japan sat in his bed, gaze fixed on the full moon that dominated the night sky and thought aloud.

"China was the first to die…" he mumbled barely audibly, "This means that he knew something he wasn't supposed to…but what?"

It was entertaining watching him trying to decipher the mystery of my identity but it was also alarming. Japan was the smartest of all my guests and so, if one had to pick the pieces and make links to faint hints to pull out an answer, it would be him.

"The feast…" Japan continued to mumble, "He said it was Ancient…a feast depicting the time where we were all _one_…_when there was only one_…"

I noticed how Japan spoke slowly as he pronounced the latter phrase, was he realising the truth sooner than I anticipated? It wouldn't do.

"And the letters…" Japan remembered, "Germany said his was from _an old acquaintance_... mine was from _a brethren_ and America's was _U. N. Owen_ which hinted to the murder's knowledge of North American literature and maybe more…but who? Who in the history of Asia is or was acquainted to Germany?"

I smiled, Japan was so amusing. What a pain it would be to have him…disappear…he might have been the only hope for any of the other guests to get out of this place alive, but he made a fatal mistake.

Fatal indeed.

"_Go in thy native innocence, rely On what thou hast of virtue, summon all, For God towards thee hath done his part, do thine_…" Japan quoted as he dropped his head in his hands in an attempt to think harder, "And his other poem…that bastard's just toying with us."

Ouch.

That stung Japan…

"_When there was only one…_" Japan repeated again and again as if he was trying to find the key I placed within the words. Suddenly, his eyes widened and I knew that he finally knew, "That can't be…"

"Sadly it is." I said as I appeared in the room wearing my familiar grin. "You are not the only ones on this island but it's okay, it's funnier to watch if you suspect yourselves."

Japan cowered away; his face paled which surprised me because the man was already really pale as it was. "You…" he managed to mumble.

"Me, me, me…" I chanted softly as I walked over to the cowering Asian.

"How…why…?" He struggled to speak; visibly he was scared out of his mind, which was good. Only an insane person would keep their calm when faced by imminent death.

I pressed a finger against his trembling lips in order to silence him tenderly, "Because all of you killed me."

I showed him the double edged knife that I had stolen from Germany's room the second he had left and grinned sadistically. I had been waiting to get my hands on one of them carve in my hatred. Through out the rest of the night, I created a piece of pure art with the body of my third guest destined to die on the same day as the previous two. He might not have been one of my most hated victims but he satisfied my sadistic desires quite finely. As the sun rose, I finished and left a message for his companions to find on the virgin walls of the room that had not been tainted by the red paint.

I left, leaving the knife behind and returned to the spot that gave me God's eye in which I could observe all. An hour prior to the awakening of the sun, the nations who had slept restlessly opened their eyes and slowly fixed their hair in the mirror thanking a God that had turned a blind eye to their situation, for not dying over the night.

Twice at a time, they peaked out of their rooms and were relieved to be greeted by a familiar, trusted face.

"How'd you sleep?" America asked.

"Badly." England answered bluntly, "It's not that the bed was uncomfortable…it was…"

"Yeah, I know what you mean…" America mumbled.

Their loud voices filled the corridors and encouraged others that woke up to emerge from their rooms and join the party. They talked about the night and the thoughts that had pervaded their minds before slumbering, at some point they exchanged a few laughs as they began to relax. However, this feeling of calm was short lived.

"Where's Japan?" Italy asked looking around for his Asian friend.

All exchanged worried looks before dashing to the smaller man's room. They found it locked and immediately started slamming their fists against the wooden door that barred their way from the truth. How wonderful it was to hear them yell for their friend desperately as the inevitable truth positioned itself in their minds.

"Move back," Germany ordered. He raised his right leg and with formidable force, he kicked the door open.

"For fuck's sake." Romano cussed as he turned away from the horrendous sight.

Japan was sprawled on his bed with a large incision beginning from his neck, leading all the way down to his pelvis, his organs pouring out of the engraved hole, some spilling on the ground around. The sheets were tainted red with blood and a smile was carved into his petrified face.

"Japan!" Italy cried as he dashed towards him, his hands trembled and he hesitated to touch his disfigured body.

It was then that Russia noticed his double edged blade that he had confided to Germany. He walked over to it, dragging the attention of the others as Germany noticed the bloody message painting the walls.

"Eight little nations questioning their brethren, One discovered the fatal answer, and then there were seven."

* * *

**Ooh! But who is it? So I know I seem (that's the key word, SEEM) to be giving a huge hint to who it is but, in the end, things aren't always what they seem ;p**

**So Japan as died, high five to all of those who guessed properly! But who's next?**

**SEE YOU NEXT CHAPTER!**


	5. A Small Burn

**So, uh, a just saying thing here, but one of you totally complained last chapter about some info I gave you guys and, frankly, I believe you guys shouldn't complain about things like that unless you are positive its a mistake made by the author but I also want to warn that I don't care so I don't want to hear whatever complain you have about my work unless its constructive (I'm always opened to those things). **

**Anyways, I just think a story is something to be enjoyed by the readers and the author as well so leaving a review filled with complains just kills the fun for the author and maybe the others who read the story and felt like reading some reviews. In the end, it's just like that saying: 'If you don't have anything nice (or good) to say (provided that there's nothing constructive about it) don't say anything at all.'**

**Now with the angry (not really) blah blah over, I can say that I wasn't planning on killing someone in this chapter but went like: 'Eh, why not?' and killed another. So who is it?**

**READ ON MY FRIENDS AND ENJOY!**

* * *

"Look what I found, da." Russia said bringing attention to himself, he held the double edged blade pinched between his index and thumb, "_My_ double edged knife that I _gave_ to Germany just before heading to bed. _Da, America_?"

"Yeah…I remember…" America mumbled tensely as he gave an accusing look to Germany.

Germany's face paled as he looked around the faces of the six other nations remaining. All were staring at him in disbelief, as if they couldn't believe that they trusted Germany in the first place and elected him as the leader of their group in order to stay alive. How foolish they thought they were.

"N-nein, wait a minute…" Germany stuttered nervously, "Of course things look bad for me right now but I swear I didn't do it."

"How can we believe you?" America asked glaring at the tall man. "You clearly asked all of us for the weapons. None of us had any weapons remaining before going to bed, you even checked us afterwards to make sure we didn't keep a supplementary one hidden."

"Hold on a second, America." England spoke, "Things may be against Germany but this feels like a set up more than anything. If you think about it, our killer was always meticulous about details. He was stealthy when planting that cyanide in China's food and discrete when planting the bomb in the air command area. Why would he suddenly lose this air of slyness he placed within every murder if not to have us turn against one another? I don't think Germany did it, it just doesn't make sense."

Oh, very clever England.

Perhaps he was a little more _dangerous_ than I gave him credit for.

"Than if it isn't Germany, who?" Russia asked as he slipped a tissue from his pocket and began cleaning the blood from his blade, "He was the one who had our weapons, unless he's working with the murderer and supplied him our weapons how could anyone have had access to them?"

Germany lowered his gaze at his feet, disgraced. "Well, I am ashamed to admit that I was careless." He began than cleared his throat, "I placed the weapons in the nightstand next to my bed quickly and left my room, unlocked, to see if you had all locked your doors."

More hateful glares bombarded Germany, if it hadn't been for his brief moment of carelessness Japan may have still been alive…or so they thought. In the end, it was mere convenience to have Germany let his guard down for a few minutes allowing me to grab a weapon and place the blame on him. An ulterior outcome to this situation would be my ripping Japan to shreds with my own hands but Russia had such an interesting weapon, I didn't dare resist the temptation. And my did it slice well! It was as if the flesh was as soft as butter and welcomed the dangerously sharp blade to sever it and release the red juice it contained.

It was simply a marvellous feeling.

"I-it wasn't entirely Germany's fault!" Italy quickly intervened, he whimpered as all the gazes turned to him just like the coward he was. "S-see, I forgot to lock my door and Germany opened it when he was checking…then he told me that I should lock my door and we talked a little more…"

"That doesn't matter anymore," Romano interrupted, "What's done is done and the primary cause of it is the lackadaisicalness of Germany."

Germany didn't say anything, probably because he knew that Romano had been right and regretted deeply that one moment of sloppy wariness. He turned his gaze to his late friend that had died such a cruel – but amusing and satisfying – death. How I wondered what was going through that stoic, blonde head of his, how I wondered…

"So basically," Canada said, eyes turning to the invisible nation, "if this really is a set up, then the culprit can still be anyone of us or an individual hiding somewhere on the island."

A silence weighed on the room, the brief, suspicious glances traversing the room did not escape my vigilant eye – no they did not. How amusing. How so _very_ amusing.

"I vote a change in leaders." America finally said – I was wondering how much longer I was going to wait to hear those words, "Germany was elected because we thought he could keep us safe and alive but now another one of us has died."

"I'm against that." England admitted, "Sure Japan has died a gruesome death – don't get me wrong I'm upset too – but I don't see any other of us that could be a suitable leader."

"Why not you England?" Russia suggested, a grin twitching to see if the arrogance of the Kingdom would be revealed and if he would accept such an important position. "You seem capable to do so, da America?"

America looked at Russia and then at England, "Yeah," he nodded, "If not me, then you, England. I trust you."

England, visibly flattered looked around the room for any other agreeing gazes. "R-really?"

There was more silence as England thought and considered the offer. "Then no." He concluded, shaking his head. "I'm not sure I can handle it and it isn't a position to take likely since more of us may or may not die under the right judgement. If you all really want a new leader, here's what I suggest, a democracy. We all have an input in the decisions of our next move."

"That seems suitable." Germany nodded.

"So it's settled," England concluded, "Our new course of action is a democracy. Now, I think we should fix Japan's course as to have him look decent even if dead."

All agreed without protest.

They looked around my mansion for tissues, towels, anything that could wipe the blood scribbling their comrade's corpse. Once he was all cleaned up and the large gash was covered, they closed his eyes, prayed for his peace in the afterlife and then closed the door to his room.

Afterwards, they all followed each other down the stairs and into the living room where they would continue to debate their next move.

"I don't think Germany's idea of moving in groups is a bad one," Russia stated as he dropped himself on the sofa, "if the murderer is one of us or just another hiding around the island, two against one is better odds than one against one."

"Right, but we're seven now." Romano argued.

"Simple, there's only going to be two groups – one of three the other of four." England answered, "However I would like to suggest a switch in the pairings. Returning to the theory of the killer being one of us, then the possible culprits are Germany and Russia."

"I thought you said you didn't think it was Germany." America reminded.

"And I still don't." England informed, "But there's always the possibility for mistake. I don't think Germany killed Japan, even if all odds are against him, but maybe he made it look like a set up. I don't know and until we figure out who our murder is no one will ever know."

"And I'm still under suspicion because of China's death?" Russia asked, though he most likely already knew the answer.

"Well it's not Japan." America snorted bitterly.

"Whatever," Russia said rolling his eyes, "What are the new groups?"

"Someone needs to be able to control Germany if he is the murderer." Romano stated.

"Seeing as I believe it's safest to have America with Russia, I vote we leave them together." England began hypothesising. "I think, Italy, you should go along with the other two and the rest of us stay with Germany. Between Canada, Romano and me, we should be able to overcome him. Any objections?"

Romano seemed bitter about the group arrangements probably because he wanted to stay with his brother but he also seemed to understand that they couldn't always stay together and if it was for the sake of their survival, than so be it.

"Germany, you're being really quiet." England stated looking over to the German, "You're still allowed to speak, you know."

"I know…I…" Germany paused and dropped his head into his hands, "Japan died…because of me…he was my friend…and I killed him…"

No one said a word but sympathy was evident on all of their faces. None of them seemed to suspect Germany anymore since his remorse was painfully obvious. Together, they all began to mourn Japan quietly but not for too long. Some of them remembered that they were in a dangerous situation and the longer they waited without any progress of any sort to finding a way to staying alive, the higher the chances of one of them dying would climb.

"Germany said that we were supposed to investigate the rest of the island today…" Italy mumbled softly, "To see if there was anyone else on the island."

"Seems like a good idea…" Romano agreed.

"But can we find food first?" America asked just before his stomach lamented its hunger. "Kinda hungry…"

The statement conjured a bittersweet smile from all the nations. They stood and headed towards the pantry they had found the other day when they were investigating the manor. Once they reached the area, Germany reminded everyone that they had to wait two more days before anyone would come to their aid and so to eat in moderation and vigilantly as to not be surprised by cyanide. And so they ate, chatting occasionally but mainly residing in a tense silence as they wondered why, who, how and when. Why was someone doing this to them? Who was doing it? How was he pulling it off so smoothly- though I must admit that that one eludes me - but also when had someone thought of this cruel – yet justified – punishment?

Their meal finished, they agreed to separate in their respective groups and explore the southern and northern side of the island using the location of the mansion as the divider. America, taking lead of his party lead Russia and Italy northwards – as was convened – whereas England kept command of his group and lead them southwards. Save for a few crevices sculpted by the occasionally roughness of the ocean, there was no possible area for someone to hide except in the house thus bringing them to the painful realisation that they were alone on the island.

This immediate fact was also accompanied by a paranoid thought that was also assumed a reality that one of them was the murderer. Of course, this was false but none would know until I would reveal myself to the following nation to die. I thought of this as some sort of torment but awakening before forcing the to eternal slumber; they would rejoice to know that none of them were heartless enough to kill them but despair as their knowledge would disappear along with themselves.

Again, they regrouped in the living room surrounded by that persistent silence that pervaded their ability to speak ever since the first murder. Though, watching them fight the silence added to my amusement.

"Nothing." Germany stated after a long while of silence.

"Same on our end." America replied.

"What should we do now?" Italy asked.

"How about a bonfire?" Canada suggested once he realised he was still rather visible to all the other nations. "It would attract ships passing by."

"But no one knows we're missing," America reminded, "People aren't even supposed to know we exist. Plus there wasn't a plane crash in the general area so people might just assume that it's something happening on a private island."

"Maybe but will it really hurt to try it?" Canada asked.

"It doesn't sound like it could hurt to try." Germany admitted, "The only thing that can really come out of this is that a ship decides to investigate and saves us which means we get off this island faster."

"We can also take shifts on taking care of the fire." England added, "Not that we have much of a choice if we're going to do that but it might put the one guarding the fire in danger of being killed."

"Well how about we sleep in a large group instead?" Italy suggested with a faint smile.

"Come to think of it, I don't think anyone wants to sleep near the rooms where the dead lay…" America pointed out, "I mean, it's creepy."

"_Si_ and I'd feel safer with the rest of you." Italy admitted truthfully.

The others agreed but their intentions were visible. Sleeping in groups could assure a steady guard on all the possible murderer suspects.

"Than we should move the mattresses down here, in the living room, to sleep comfortably and built the bond fire." England concluded. "America, Russia and Italy, you three should be sufficient enough to build the fire and gather the fuel that will keep it going for the next two days. The rest of us will gather the mattresses and blankets."

And so my seven guest dispersed again.

America, Russia and Italy left the building to go find the suitable place to build a bonfire however, my island was flat thus preventing the distress signal from being seen from one angle. Nevertheless, they did the best they could – which wouldn't be enough – and began gathering wood.

Italy gathered branches that had fallen to the ground due to various reasons and brought them back to the given location while America and Russia made it a competition to see who could break down the most trees and drag back the most. The base for the bonfire was built quickly at said rate – mostly due to the competitive nature of the world powers – and within no time, they had made a second larger pile to feed the fire.

"Now, all we need to do is start the fire." America announced as they gazed at the smaller pile of the two.

Without warning, Russia grabbed America glasses and angled them with the sun much to the American's protest.

"What are you doing!? Give them back!" The American whined.

"Hush, wait a moment, da? I'm starting the fire." Russia announced pushing America back roughly.

A ray passed through the specks and shined upon a part of the woodpile, with little adjustment the beam started to burn the flammable solid, creating smoke. Russia blew on the smoke softly before a flame appeared and quickly took over the pile of wood.

"Awesome." America grinned, "Now give me my glasses back."

Russia rolled his eyes and handed him the glasses as requested. There was a moment of silence shared amongst the three as they gazed at the fire feeling a little relieved and hoping it would bring their hell to an end soon.

"Why do you think this is happening?" Italy asked after a moment.

Both world powers looked at the nation almost as puzzled as he was. "Not sure." America shrugged, "I guess one of us was just pretending to be a friend or an ally."

"But why…?" Italy wondered, "Why to the point of death?"

"Because hate can be much more powerful than we can ever imagine." Russia answered. There was a brief silence as the Italian and the America looked at the taller nation, expecting an elaboration. "I dislike America."

"Hey!"

"But I don't hate him." Russia finished rendering America silent, "Both feelings are negative however, one is much more powerful than the other. da. If you dislike someone, it doesn't mean you can't tolerate their presence or have a normal conversation with them. If you hate, that's a different story, it means that you loath every second of the person and wish terrible things to happen. Sometimes, the hate is so powerful that it takes over the one feeling it and makes him do the horrible things he has envisioned in his mind's eye."

"So you're saying that's what the murder feels?" America asked.

"Da, most likely." Russia answered.

"Then…why wouldn't it be you?" Italy asked after hesitating a little.

Russia smiled an odd smile that neither I nor the two others he was speaking with have ever seen before. "The answer is simple." Russia said, he took a piece of wood from the larger pile that wasn't on fire and stabbed his hand. Blood poured out and he showed it to America and Italy, "I've never heard of an elixir that could do such a thing to a nation." He admitted as it was made evident that the wound wasn't closing like it should have been, "And even if I somehow would have come across it, I wouldn't have made myself a human."

* * *

…

* * *

England, Germany, Canada and Romano had gathered all the mattresses and dragged them down to the living room. They had pushed the other pieces of furniture back to make more room and dressed every bed. Once the task was done, they all went to the kitchen and pantry to begin cooking dinner.

They had gathered five cans of canned ravioli resulting in Romano whining about how it wasn't real pasta – or food for that matter – and cursing the American laziness that produces said edible slop. Nevertheless, they found a can opener and began cooking it, regardless of Romano's strong feelings against it.

Germany hadn't much a passion for cooking, it was something that another had always taken care of for him, like Austria or Italy, however watching the three others play around and supervise the cooking of the canned pasta relaxed him and almost made him feel as if nothing was wrong. As if three of their friends hadn't died horrible deaths and that none of their lives were in danger. But that same sense of relaxation came with the anxiety and fear of letting his guard down again, something he didn't want to repeat considering the first time brought about the death of a friend. A close friend.

"I'm telling you we should add some paprika in there." England insisting fishing the spice from the spice cobber.

"That's just stupid!" Romano shrieked, "Paprika barely has any taste, it's just for decoration!"

"Not to mention that the spices might have been tampered with." Canada added.

Canada's argument seemed to have been sufficient to have England put the spice back where he found it and pout, staring at the cooking pot in regret.

"And you wonder why your food is crap." Romano hissed.

"Hey! My food is delicious!" England defended.

The two soon began bickering about which land had the best of food, much to Canada's annoyance since he was stuck in the middle of the debate.

"Heyo!" America yelled noisily as he kicked in the door of the kitchen, "What's cookin', good lookin'?"

"Shut up, America." England barked, "Can't you see we're busy!?"

America pouted and sat at the table with Germany.

"What happened to your hand, eh?" Canada asked as he noticed Russia's bleeding hand wrapped in a handkerchief.

"A small accident." Russia responded with one of his fake, eerie smiles.

"There's a first aid kit in the bathroom upstairs…" Canada pointed out before returning all of his attention to the canned food, "You should take care of the wound."

Without further word, the Russian left the kitchen to find the first aid kit that could stop the bleeding. Meanwhile, my guests had almost seemed to have returned to their old selves as they continued debating full heartedly and chat about their economy and other things.

"You two should just stop fighting," America stated after a while of watching England and Romano quarrel about their food, "France's got you both beat by a landslide."

The statement that hadn't been thought through reduced the joyous atmosphere to dust in a matter of seconds. England, who's mouth hung open in shock, closed it and turned his attention to the food that was nearly done. Romano simply stared out the window while the others took turns staring at the ceiling, the floor and the walls. Evidently, speaking of the dead was a taboo subject.

Russia soon came back with the wound in his hand mended, he was puzzled by the odd atmosphere but assumed it had something to do with America's large mouth and him saying something he shouldn't have.

A minute later, the food was ready to serve and all sat quietly at the table before Germany rose his glass of water.

"I would like to propose a toast," he said, "to our fallen friends who's deaths shall not be in vain."

Hesitantly, the others raised their glasses announcing 'cheers' before taking a quick sip and filling their mouths with the caned food. The meal ended quite fast and soon the nations found themselves with nothing to do except stare at each other and wonder who, why, how and when.

At some point between the end of lunch and the beginning of sun fall, someone had suggested the game of cards that had given them something else to do except wonder and guess who had done it. They had another meal of canned food when England brought up the topic of the bonfire.

"No one's been checking on it." He said concerned.

"Do not worry about it, da." Russia replied, "The fire is still good for another three hours. Once I finish eating my food, I'll go keep an eye on it."

With that said, no more concerns were brought to table other than the agreement that each would have a three hour shift to keep the fire. And then, a few moments later, as Russia said he would, he left the table to eye the fire. The others finished shortly after and retreated to their new sleeping quarters – the living room.

There silence weighed on the room which encouraged half to go to sleep early and think happy thoughts about a future where they could forget the events unfolding in the mansion. By the time, the three hours for Russia where over, all had fallen in a deep sleep and Russia had suffered his fate.

* * *

…

* * *

When the morning came, Italy anxiously awoke from his sleep and noticed that Russia was missing from the pile of those who were sleeping. It was he who quickly awoke the others and told them that Russia had yet to return from the bonfire's location.

All of them raced outside to find a torrid storm raging in the sky above them and the ocean water slapping the walls of the island with great force and might. Nevertheless, this didn't stop them from running to the fire's location and finding it burned out in a pile of ashes with a badly burned corpse topping the mess and the supplementary wood dispersed in the immediate area.

The purple scarf that seemed to be the only distinguishable colour was enough evidence to identify the man who had died, burned alive, Russia.

"Fuck…no way…" America whispered, his throat had tightened which made it hard for him to speak, "Russia was so strong…how…? How could the murder…"

Canada reached towards the corpse and accidently caused the charcoal coat that Russia always wore to break off, revealing a message I carved in his chest's flesh – that hadn't been burned as bad as the rest of him – before throwing him in.

"Seven little nations on an island in the tropics, The sun scorched one to death, and then there were six"

* * *

**Does anyone actually read these things? Eh, well I'll keep putting them just in case!**

**I love how some people pondered on how I was going to kill this little nation and the ideas they came up with. The one I enjoyed the most was the 'sun scorching poison' (thing) *wink, wink* not that it's a bad idea, just that I never thought of it AT ALL before xD**

**So now we have six little nations remainning and the next one gets to go insane! Who do you think it is? How do you think it's going to happen? Do you think there's going to be a reason behind said little nation going mad (by which I mean the reason Japan died was because he knew too much so that's why he died) and what would that reason be? Are my questions confusing you? Are you wondering why I'm asking you when I'm the author and basically know all the answers?**

**Well the answer to the last question was because I'm awesome...or something**

**I don't know if that made sense...**

**I guess I'll know if you guys read this if you answer my questions xD SO UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN, I BID YOU ALL ADIEU!**

**SEE YOU NEXT CHAPTER!**


	6. A Case of Madness

**I liked this chapter more than I thought I would lol**

**I want to put a warning (so people don't come bitching at me saying 'Blaah there should have been a warning!') but if I do then it kills the suspense of what happens so...I won't but I'll put a warning of a warning (which is basically this thing)**

**So, without further ado...  
ENJOY!**

* * *

My guests have found themselves perplexed on how Russia, the strongest, scariest nation known to them could ever be defeated by someone like me. It wasn't much of an extravagant fight; it was a victory won thanks to the tactic of surprise. When Russia was guarding the bonfire, he – just like all the others – thought that one of the sleeping nations was the culprit. What an amusement it was to me as his face distorted itself to enact surprise the moment he spotted me.

"Who…are you?" He had asked confused.

"_Я__меня.__*_" I had answered in his native tongue. His eyes had only held more confusion as he had tried to identify me; he must have known right away that I wasn't from his country due to my features that weren't typically Russian which added to his bewilderment. He must have also tried to think of other countries where a man such as myself would originate but could think of none; yet his eyes had unravelled his thoughts as he wondered why was it that I felt so familiar to him.

"_Не понимаю__…_" Russia had mumbled as he tried to find clues by examining my eyes, as if I would falter and reveal my notorious intentions so soon, "_Кто вы?_ _Почему вы так__знакомо?__**_"

I couldn't help but smile softly at the time, how adorable it was to see someone such as him struggle in vain. Of course he couldn't have remembered me because he was but an infant the first time we met, when I was disappearing, when I passed on my will to become one with the world to him.

"_Я__один__,_" I had answered after some time of silence, "_Но я также__смерть.__***_"

His eyes widened, a memory of that time that happened ever so long ago might have replayed in his mind after such a long slumber in the bed of forlornness. I had then grinned uncontrollably and dashed towards him as fast as I could to strike a critical blow to the back of his head.

Now the blow would have been critical if Russia hadn't simply been…well, Russia. The strike merely knocked him out but it was good enough. During his state of unconsciousness, I took a thick but sharp branch and began carving the blood message into his chest. It had been rather difficult and the branch had snapped so many times but the message had been written and the man was still out like a light. I then heaved his body over the fire of burning wood and watched as his flesh burned and was cast upwards toward the sky, to be scattered with the wind.

I had been concerned at the time that the planes that were to pick up my guests were going to arrive far too soon for me to finish them all off but it was as I left the area of the murder that I noticed the odd sent lingering in the air – besides the one of burning flesh. I had soon realised that it was the despicable sent of humidity and nearing rain.

How lucky had I been?

Perhaps it was God's will to eradicate the world of these idiotic countries and for me to return, as one, in all of my glory?

Nevertheless, that's was how I defeated Russia. I took advantage of his surprise that was accompanied with a good dose of confusion and pushed him in the fire. Ha!

Brilliant.

Anyways, once they found Russia's body and quickly mourned as the storm that I had smelled raged around them, they carefully picked up the burnt corpse and brought it up to a room where he would lay and rest for all eternity. The room's door was closed respectfully and none dared to wish for his peace because they all knew it was impossible.

Then, as they usually did, they returned to the living room in which they slept. "This…is insane…" America mumbled as he stared into nothingness. Clearly, he was troubled. "How could Russia have died like that? We…we should have saved him…"

"We couldn't do anything, we were sleeping." Germany argued.

"But we were supposed to take turns watching the fire!" America barked in return, "Wait…who was supposed to watch the fire after Russia?"

"M-me…" Italy stuttered.

"Then it was you!" America accused, "You killed Russia! You must have taken him off guard because, otherwise, you never would have had a chance!"

"N-no! It's not me!" Italy cried, "I-I fell asleep…and –"

"Cut the crap!" America spat, interrupting Italy, "It's so obvious when you think about it! It's always the innocent, silent one!"

"Calm down, America!" Germany growled.

"No! He's the one!" America yelled, "He killed Russia and everyone else! We have to get him before he gets us!"

"You're not touching my _Fratello_!" Romano hissed as he stepped in front of his brother defensively.

"He's a murderer!"

A hard strike to the head had America shut up immediately, "America, calm down." Canada rumbled angrily.

America's desperate look faded and returned to rationality. "But…logically…he would have been the one to go after Russia…"

"Look," Canada explained quickly, "There was no one there so we have no proof who did what. Maybe Italy was actually asleep and someone else did it; we're just never going to know."

America pouted in his silence as the others continued to identify who was behind it by accusing themselves.

"I don't think its Italy." Germany began.

"Because it's not him." Romano defended bitterly.

"Let me finish," requested Germany, "I don't think its Italy but we can't really ignore the possibility. Italy will be put under close surveillance and no one is to be left alone with him, just in case."

"That's just stupid!" Romano snapped.

"No, it's being cautious." Germany retorted, "Now, we need to move on to other things because there's a bigger problem at hand."

"There is?" America asked doubtfully.

Germany pointed towards the window, "_Ja_, the storm."

As if on cue, lightning stroke just above the house accompanied by a booming thundery explosion.

"The storm?" America repeated.

The German nodded, "We are at the third day of our stay," Germany reminded as he slowly got to the point. "We were all supposed to leave today, our planes were supposed to pick us up but…not in that type of weather."

A weighing silence of comprehension spread through the room rapidly, all that could be heard was the sound of the harsh rain pelting the window.

"What…?" England muttered in shock, he had finally spoken after a long moment of silence on his part. No one had noticed – except for me – that he was in the fetal position and shaking ever so lightly. "We can't stay here…"

"We don't have a choice." Germany replied grimly. "No planes are going to go off flying in this weather, it'd be suicide. We need to survive until the storm dies down…"

"We won't survive!" England snap hysterically, "If we don't leave this place now another one of us will die! And if we wait longer, we'll all die!"

"Calm down England…" Germany spoke softly as to comfort the troubled nation but to no vain.

"I can't calm down! I shouldn't be calm in this situation!" England roared, his voice beginning to break and squeak, "First China, then France, Japan and finally Russia! It doesn't make sense! None of us here hate each other enough to kill each other! None of us are smart enough to concoct a potion to transform a nation into a human but me! And I don't even know how to do that!"

"England…"

"Don't you dare _England_ me in that sorry ass tone!" England growled harshly, "Whoever this sicko is, he's good and he's going to get us all if we don't leave _now!_"

And there was silence.

Blessed silence that tended to dominate all of my guests whenever the cruel reality was thrown in their faces, whenever they didn't know what to say anymore, whenever there was nothing to say anymore.

"Look," Romano spoke first to the surprise of everyone – including myself, "The reality of this situation is that we're stuck here whether or not we like it. We can't just make a boat and leave in that storm because we're not nations anymore and who knows if we'll ever be again? If we try to leave this place in this weather, we die; if he stay here and continue bickering like this, we die; our only option left is to calm down and think rationally and try to survive."

"Well said." Germany complimented.

"Shut up potato bastard." He retorted immediately.

Germany smiled, faintly, before returning to serious things, "We don't know who the murderer is," He began slowly, eyeing everyone slowly, "But it has to be one of us because there's no one else on this island to prove us otherwise. Whoever it is, is really good at keeping his identity concealed and covering up for his crimes masterfully. We suggested before to stay in groups because we would be safe but, apparently, he's been able to find a loop hole to continue the murders, now I suggest we simply don't separate anymore. Understood?"

None had noticed that Germany had taken control of the situation and the group once again, his judgement and decisions just seemed like the best course of action at the time and so no one dared to object. Even America had quieted down and respected his authority; perhaps it was because he had just witnessed England snap completely just after he lost it as well thus resulting to the conclusion that he was in no mental state to be giving out orders.

"Now, we should all go eat something in the pantry." Germany ordered more than suggested, "It will give us energy to confront the day and think of ways to survive until our planes return for us."

Without another word, all followed Germany to the kitchen, Romano limping a little further back behind the group but was accompanied by Italy and so, striking him down would prove to be too difficult for me since I would not end my little Italy so quickly.

"Something seems weird…" America pointed out as he ventured a little away from the group to inspect the kitchen, "Doesn't this place seem a little too…clean?"

And it was cleaner than it had been the other day because I had taken the liberty of cleaning it after I passed through. They were all sleeping so soundly and I had considered waking them at the time, but instead I had let them slumber peacefully as I cleaned their horrid mess.

What messy people, they were.

"A little…" Germany admitted, he might have noticed the same thing as America but not been bothered by the fact since the man was known for being a neat-freak.

It was then that Germany continued his way to the pantry and opened the door that led to an utopia of closed food to find them…

"Open…" he mumbled incredulously. "Everything's open…"

"What do you mean, Germany?" Italy asked concerned as he helped seat his brother.

All – at the exception of Romano who's leg injury was infecting thus impairing his walking ability that had been just fine, but bitterly painful, just two days ago – gathered around Germany to see what had shocked him so much.

"The cans…the sealed shut boxes…" England mumbled as he stared in horror, "They're all open…We…"

"I don't get it…what's the big deal?" America asked confused.

"You git!" England snapped, "Can't you see that we can't eat any of it anymore!? The food is open; cyanide or any other type of poison can contaminate it! Whoever this sick bastard is, he's taunting us!"

"Wait! There are a few things that haven't been opened." Canada exclaimed quickly as he waved three boxes.

England snatched one away and threw it on the ground, "The expiration date was two years ago! We're going to starve to death!"

No one said anything but stared at the open boxes in a desolating way. "Is there…anyway to tell which of the things have been tampered with?" America asked hopefully.

"I don't know any other way other than techniques that require gadgets…" Germany stated before ripping his gaze from the taunting view.

"That's because there's no other way!" England roared as he began to tear the pantry apart.

He grabbed a few boxes and started throwing the around, spraying food across the floor and shelves. America entered the room and tried to restrain England's fit of rage but the smaller man had much more power than America imagined.

"Hey! I'm angry too!" America stated as he grabbed both of the Brit's wrists, "But you don't see me flailing expired and poisoned food around! Weren't you the one who taught me to be proper and not make messes!?"

"Don't you speak to me that way!" Insanity dripped with every England uttered, "This food is junk anyways! We can't eat any of it without dying!"

England shoved America roughly having him hit his head against one of the boards. "America!" Canada called as he dashed towards his brother.

"I'm fine…"

"We're all going to die!" England screamed, "How can you be fine!"

Germany leaned forward and grabbed England's arm, "England –"

"Do _not_ touch me!" He slapped Germany's hand away and backed out of the pantry, his eyes darting to every inch of the room. "I know! I've figured it out! You're all in cahoots!"

"Ca-what?" America repeated as he was helped to his feet.

"You're all ganging up against me!" England exclaimed, then he laughed like a madman, "I knew it! I knew there was something else when you threw that stupid revolution! I knew that Canada didn't stay with me just for loyal reasons, he was spying on me for you! And then Germany! You could never accept the punishments of the World Wars but it was meant to be! You had to be punished! I should not have to die!"

Before anyone could say anything to have him believe otherwise, England ran off. America wanted to go after him but Germany quickly caught his arm and shook his head grimly, "I don't know what's wrong with him," Germany began, "But he needs time to calm down."

"Is he going to be okay…?" America asked concerned.

"If we stay together, no one can hurt him or kill him." Germany stated. "He should be fine."

He should have been that he should have.

If only I wasn't the murderer.

If only.

Of course, it was safest for me to wait until someone decided to separate from the group thus allowing me my moment to strike and incriminate another and cast away any suspicion that could be placed upon an extra party.

During England's absence, my guests stayed together and searched through the pantry as to find some food that could be good to eat. They even inspected some of the food that was still sealed shut in the hopes of finding them without mildew but their efforts bore no fruit.

They debated on what they should eat and came to the conclusion the best they could do was stay hydrated by using the faint amount of fresh water left in my home. All of them drank to the end of their thirst and more as to mask their hunger, which worked, partially, because minutes later their stomachs began to lament again.

"You know…" America mumbled, breaking the eternal silence, "We haven't checked our bags ever since we got here…"

"That's true…" Germany agreed with the observation, "The _excitement_ of the murders must have made us forget about them."

"I think I might have some food in there." America stated.

"Enough for all of us?" Asked Romano who's wound was being washed by his brother.

"I don't know," America admitted, "But even if I did have enough for all of us to have our own thing to eat, it wouldn't be much."

"It's better than nothing." Italy sighed.

"But what happened to our bags when we got here?" Canada asked.

No one answered because no one knew. I had taken the liberty of taking away the belongings of my guests and hiding them across the mansion. Of course, it came to a surprise to me when they searched my wondrous home and found not even one luggage. Perhaps their fortune would change?

"Maybe they're in the rooms upstairs." America suggested, "I don't remember what I did with mine but logically, I would have brought it up there."

"Right, then we shall all go." Germany instructed.

Romano finally stopped him, "Whoa, I'm not moving one bit!"

"Why is that?" Germany sighed angrily, he wasn't much in the mood for dealing with Romano's rebellious side – especially in this situation.

"My leg, it may have been good two days ago but now its shit." Romano pointed at the leg Italy had been cleaning. There were still large plates of dry blood dirtying the area where the bone had broken and a large bruise adding to the darkness and disgustingness of the sight. "It hurts to walk on it now and there's no way I'm climbing stairs."

"What do we do…?" Italy asked concerned.

Germany stayed silent and thought. It was clear he hesitated to leave Romano where he was probably for two reasons. The first being the result of the danger that would lay for England – wherever he was – if Romano was the culprit; the second being the alternative to the former.

"Look," America insisted, "I can just go alone. It won't take me that long."

"I don't know…" Germany mumbled unconvinced.

"How about we give him a time limit?" Canada suggested, "It should take him ten minutes maximum, if he's not back in that amount of time, we go after him."

"Yeah, I like that idea." America agreed.

Germany sighed and finally agreed whereas I smiled; I could finally strike but now I had two options. Either I could kill a psychotic Brit that was hopelessly paranoid at the moment of destroy the mental capacity of the last World Power.

In the end, the most amusing decision was simple enough.

* * *

I watched intrigued as England ran through the halls of the eastern side of the mansion, far away from where the other nations camped and into the passages I had kept hidden from the others. They hadn't searched my home as thoroughly as possible but, they had only missed one small room that could have saved them if they had found it. Nevertheless, their mistake was understandable for a few reasons: the secret room was hidden perfectly and it was so small that, even from an outside view, it would be difficult to notice that there was just one place that was unexplored.

However, I doubted I was going to keep this place a secret for much longer.

England ran directly into said room and, of course, I decided to appear thus causing him to crash in my broad chest. He fell on the ground with a shriek of despair but I soon found myself quieting him as a mother would for her child who had just had a horrendous nightmare.

"It's alright," I said softly as I extended one of my hands to the terrified nation, "Everything's alright. No one's going to hurt you anymore, now come to me."

Tears welled up in his eyes; England jumped from his feet and into my arms and broke into a fit of sobs. "I-I'm so s-scared." He cried, "I-I don't want to d-die."

"Shh." I hushed as I held in some laughter. I stroked the nation's head soothingly and calmed his whimpers and sobs, "It's fine. I'll make the pain go away."

"Y-you will?" he asked.

"I will."

I enjoyed mostly how the man didn't think of it as odd that I was now present. Perhaps he thought of me as one of his imaginary friends or something of the sort.

"H-how?" He asked and looked at me with big, round, empty green eyes. It was clear that insanity had taken its hold on him and that there was no returning him back to normal…not that I wanted to do such a thing.

I took his hands in mine and leaned down a little as to be at the same height as he. "It's very simple, England." I smiled softly but my voice definitely betrayed my mischievous, cruel intent. "The pain only goes away if you do what I say."

He nodded frantically, "I just want it to go away." He begged and more tears poured out.

I dropped one of his hands to gently wipe the tears away with my thumb, again, restraining my laughter. Oh, how I wanted to laugh and stab him, hear him scream, watch the life flee from his eyes.

Oh, how I wanted him dead.

Now.

But I had to control myself, it would be more amusing that way.

"You need to die." I answered smoothly.

He seemed confused, "B-but…"

"I know you don't want to," I said as I pulled him into a soft embrace, "but it's the only way. It's the only way you'll ever be at peace, the only way you won't be hurting anymore."

I felt him begin to tremble in my arms.

"I-I…"

"You know the five left?" I said reminding him of his comrades which caused him to tense, "Well, you were right, they're trying to kill you. They all ganged up against you because they hate you. You were right all along."

England gasped in horror and looked up at me, "T-then what should I do?"

"Like I said, you need to die." I repeated. "You're going to die anyways so don't give them the satisfaction of them doing it. You need to beat them to their goal."

England nodded, somehow, I managed to convince him of committing suicide with empty lies.

"How…? Is there a rope? A knife?"

The stutter had left his voice and then I knew that there was no more place for rationality in that blonde head of his.  
I shook my head in response and picked up his hands once more. "You'll need to use these." I gestured his hands as to have him understand that those were going to be the tools to his demise, "You'll scratch at your neck as hard as you can and you won't stop until it feels wonderful and peaceful, understood?"

Without even an acknowledgement of comprehension, he began sinking his nails into the flesh of his neck. He whimpered and groaned for the pain he was feeling was surely intense but didn't stop. I watched in delight as a crimson river flowed from his neck, down, over his chest, caking his petit body in a beautiful red.

Suddenly, he halted all of his actions; he stopped whimpering, he stopped clawing, he stopped crying, he stopped breathing. With a heavy thump, he fell over and chocked for a very brief moment on the blood that had filled his lungs and incapacitated his ability to breath. Thus, as such, he died a gruesome death all thanks to the lies I filled in his head.

Wanting the body to be found, I dragged it to the front of the stairs leaving a trail of red that would lead to my secret room but I assumed that the nations would be too preoccupied by another death to notice it immediately. And so, I disappeared as I always did and watched from a safe and secretive location as America descended the stairs only to find England's lifeless corpse.

"England!" he cried attracting the attention of the other nations that sat in a room just next to the main staircase.

Germany, Italy and Canada ran from the living room and towards the sound of America's voice to find him hunched over England and desperately trying to bring him back, somehow.

"America! What are you doing!?" Germany barked as he pulled him off of the dead nation.

"I'm trying to save him!" America cried as he scurried over England's body once again. "There's still hope, there's always hope!"

It was Canada's turn to wrap his arms around his brother and gently pull him off, regardless of his struggling to sooth him and have him accept that England was dead and there was nothing he could do about it.

"No! I can still save him!" he persisted.

"America, it's easier this way…" Canada whispered soothingly, "Just…look away…"

America struggled anyhow and flailed his arms desperately as to shake his brother's grip away, "No! England! England!" He screamed, "Wake up! Wake the fuck up! England!"

Germany watched as the North American brothers slowly made their way to the living room where one of them interrupted into sobs and whispered something about being a hero and saving England.

"Hey…Germany…" Italy said quietly catching the larger nation's attention.

"_Ja_?"

He then read the message I had left in the Brit's blood, "Six little nations just trying to survive, One went mad, and then there were five."

Oh, how the thunder boomed lovingly as they wondered all at once _who done it?_

* * *

* I am me (in Russian)

** I don't understand…who are you? Why are you so familiar? (in Russian)

*** I am the One but I am also Death (in Russian)

* * *

**Who here has read my **World War III** fanfic? Cuz I was going to announce that I may or may not be adding a bonus chapter to that story...**

**And then for some more self advertising, if you guys like this story, go check out **The Asylum **because the concept is relatively the same except it concentrates more on Canada and America (in a non Yaoi way). So yea, it's basically Canada and America trapped in an asylum with a madman killing everyone off and they have to try to escape (the story's actually a little more complex than that but you get the basic idea)**

**Anyways, who's this little sicko he's killing all of our fav nations?**

**It was actually so emoful writing this chapter for me since Russia was dead and I was there like: 'I miss making Russia talk *insert sad face here*'**

**But yea...**

**SEE YOU NEXT CHAPTER!**


	7. A Wandering Ghost

**I don't even know how to feel this chapter lol because I think I did a good job but I think it could have been better...**

**But I won't keep you guys too long from reading the chapter though **_SOME OF YOU WILL BE SURPRISED ON WHO DIES_**!**

**Just saying ;p**

**AN AWESOME THANKS TO THE **Us, Canada, the UK, Italy, Germany, Philippines, Australia, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Sweden, Chile, Netherlands, China, Republic of Korea, France, New Zealand, Malta, Russian Federation, Finland, Poland, Iceland, Brunei Darussalam **and **Peru **FOR THE WORLD WIDE VIEWS!**

**NOW ENJOY MY READERS!**

* * *

As the storm grew more violent and the deaths piled at their feet, my guests retreated back to the living room as if it were the only safe haven my home had to offer. America had calmed down drastically since the hour that separated the presence from the discovery of England's corpse at the bottom of the stairs. The carefree smile he wore in other circumstances had long since disappeared and his eyes held only one resolve: to escape my death island.

The three others remaining warily surveyed the Super Power well aware that, out of all of them, America was the most plausible suspect to having ended England's life. Of course, the reaction he had had when they found him with the dead nation's body almost annihilated every doubt there was to criminalising America. Almost. The truth was that the three remaining nations had witnessed or lived through the betrayal of a comrade thus, if America had decided to kill off everyone one by one, it came to them as no surprise.

Three…

"What do we do now…?" Italy asked after a moment of pure silence.

"I don't know…" Germany answered defeated, "We keep a close eye on America I guess…"

"What about England's body?" Romano mentioned, "It's still in the same place as before…"

"I think…I think it's best we leave it where it is…" Germany responded hesitantly. He clearly wasn't fond of the idea of abandoning the body of a friend disrespectfully where it had been found.

The three nations turned their gaze to America who sat in a corner, hugging his legs, as they expected him to burst into a fit of rage due to the order Germany gave. They all sighed when nothing happened.

"Food wise," Romano began quietly, "How are we going to deal with that?"

"We can't just eat the food from the open boxes…" Germany replied, "We don't know which is poisoned and which isn't. We need to tough it out until the storm calms down and a plane comes to get us."

"B-but Romano's leg is broken…" Italy stated worriedly, "It's probably not healing properly and it might infect…"

"I'll be fine." Romano growled, "I'm no sissy ass prick like Spain."

Italy opened his mouth as if to say something but closed it after a moment of thought and nodded reluctantly.

"Now what we need to figure out is who's trying to kill us." Germany declared, "Which one of us is the murderer?"

America's gaze at the other end of the room barely wavered at the question, the man focused on the floor whereas the gaze of Italy and Romano wandered to the walls. Germany sighed, he probably wasn't expecting any of them to come out and admit to their crime but he was at least expecting one of them to throw in a hypothesis.

"Well, let's start with this," Germany tried again, "Who could have killed China?"

"Russia and Japan." Romano answered. "They were the only two sitting next to him that could have slipped in some cyanide."

"Who sat in front of him?" Germany asked. "I mean, he could have just leaned over to seemingly grab some food and done it."

"America did." Italy answered looking over to said nation who still didn't move a muscle.

"Okay, so out of all of us, America is the potential murderer so far." Germany nodded before continuing, "Now who could have killed Japan?"

"What about France?" Romano interrupted sharply, "He died before Japan."

"Honestly, I think whoever did it was lucky." Germany admitted, "When you think about it, unless the bomb was strapped to a chair that France used or even to his chest, it couldn't have been planned."

Romano nodded in comprehension allowing the conversation to return to Japan's potential killer.

"Japan died brutally in his bed." Germany reminded, "The weapon used was the double edged blade that belonged to Russia."

"But at the time you were the one with all the weapons, including the double edged blade." Romano pointed out bluntly.

"Romano…" Italy mumbled uncomfortable with the hinted accusation.

"It's alright Italy," Germany hushed quickly, "So I'm potentially Japan's murderer. Now who could have killed Russia?"

"Anyone." Romano stated, "When you think about it, we were all sleeping or supposedly sleeping so anyone of us could have got up and pushed him in the fire."

"Good point, any objections?" Germany asked and stared at the two Italians who seemed to be the only ones participating in uncovering the mystery.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Four…

Four?

Both shook their heads, "Finally, who could have killed England?" Germany asked.

Without a word said, the three knew that they all believed it to be America. "Well…" Romano mumbled, afraid to say anything in case it would have the Super Power snap. "We…found him…with him…"

Although whatever he had said was incredibly vague, the two other nations understood to who he was referring to. "Right…America was found with England," Germany mumbled what the Italians were too afraid to say, "And if we do the count, America has two cases against him whereas I have one. Thus far, America is the only one abled to be deemed the murderer."

"You guys are unbelievable." America hissed from where he sat.

The…three snapped their heads towards America.

"You really think I did it?" He asked finally glaring at them, "I'll tell you one thing, even if China was dominating me financially, I didn't hate him. It seemed more like a competition than anything so I had no reason to slip poison into his food! And then France was like a father to my brother and a little to me too! He was a great guy and I was very close to him! Japan was my friend just like he was _yours_! I'd never lay a hand against a friend so it couldn't have been me anyhow! Russia, on the other hand, was my mortal enemy for the longest time and our tension still hadn't died down so I don't know what to say to defend myself here except announce that it wasn't me."

And then, America stopped.

The three others waited to hear what the blonde country had to say for himself about England but it never came…until Italy had dared to ask him.

"What about…England?"

America smirked bitterly, "England?" he repeated as he stared into space, "That guy was more than a friend, a brother or a father. He wasn't exactly a boyfriend or a lover or anything but, damn it, I loved him even more than Jack loved Rose."

How touching it was to see America spill his heart out to the nations incriminating him for the murders of their friends but his words were useless and wouldn't stop the series of killings. However, at that moment, I couldn't help but be bothered the number…

Three.

Four.

Four.

Four…

Four?

"Look, I can't really convince you I didn't do it," America sighed as he stood from where he sat, "And I know it has to be someone, but, at this point, I don't care who it is. I just want to leave this place."

I was pulled from my train of thought to pay attention to whatever America had to say about the situation.

"I find that the best course of action is just to stick together, in this room, until all this blows over." America declared, "We don't have to speak to each other, we don't have to do anything we don't want to do as long as we stay together to keep an eye on each other and wait for the planes to come get us."

Germany nodded in agreement, "I think it's a good idea." He then looked around the room and noticed the deck of cards they had used at some point to keep entertained, "We always have the cards if we want to do anything."

"But what if we need to go to the bathroom?" Romano asked. "We can't just piss around this place."

"Then we all go together, as simple as that." America stated, "We're all men here. It shouldn't bother anyone."

There was another moment of silence in which all reflected on the other downs that could occur if they were all to stay put until the storm would pass but nothing sprung to mind. Germany was the first to act, breaking the silence as he walked towards the deck of cards to suggest a game.

"Anyone up for cards?" Germany asked, his gaze wandered from the Italian brothers and then towards America who was still standing.

He had spaced out but soon came back too and I couldn't help but wonder what he was thinking about. "Sure."

"Suggestions?"

There was silence before America spoke as he sat down near the brothers with a sigh, "How about Liar's Poker?"

All exchanged quizzical looks. "What?"

America smirked, "I knew you guys wouldn't know it." He leaned forward, elbows on his knees as he began to explain, "Liars' Poker is a rather unique game; the game itself is very simple, but the element of espionage and coalitions makes Liars' Poker a primarily social game. Like poker, the game involves lots of bluffing; unlike poker, wagering is not involved. Also, there is no proscription against looking at your opponents' cards."

"Alright and how does it work?" Romano asked wanting details.

"The dealer starts the round; each player going around to the left names a poker hand or challenges the previous person and must be one of the following; in ascending order: a single card, a pair, two pairs, three of a kind, a straight, a full house, four of a kind, a straight flush, five of a kind, six of a kind, etc... Deuces are wild." America continued as he took the deck of cards from Germany and began dealing them, "When you name a hand, you must provide all of the relevant information; for instance, _three queens_, _a ten through ace straight_, or _the six through ten of hearts_. You don't need to name every card; _a seven_ rather than _the seven of hearts_ is fine. Oh, and a flush is not a valid Liars' Poker hand. Within each category, ordering is as in poker; for instance, a _full house of eights and fives_ is higher than one of _fives and eights_, and a _six-through-ten straight_ beats a _four-through-eight straight_."

"This is complicated…" Italy mumbled, evidently confused.

"I think I get it." Germany admitted, "Continue."

"Well I'm almost done explaining but whatever," America stated before continuing, "The hand ends when someone elects to challenge the previous person rather than name a higher hand. When a challenge occurs, everyone lays down their cards. If, among the cards of _all_ the players at the table, the poker hand named exists, the challenger loses the deal; if the hand does not exist, the player who named it loses the deal. The exact poker hand named must exist; for instance, if the hand challenged is "three queens," and there happen to be four kings among the collective cards of the table, it's irrelevant; the challenge fails if and only if there are three queens – including deuces – among the cards in play. Unlike most games, Liars' Poker specifically encourages cheating. Any trick is acceptable for gaining a glimpse of other players' cards; for instance, you may look over their shoulder or off reflective surfaces. The only thing which is forbidden is physically touching their cards."

"I get it." Germany concluded.

"So do I." Romano seconded.

Italy, on the other hand was rather confused on the rules but lied anyhow, "_S-si _, I get it…" he mumbled.

What a wonderful start to Liar's Poker.

America had already finished dealing the cards by the time he finished his explanation on the rule of the game and began eyeing the three others that sat next to him. All were careful to shield their cards for they had taken heed of America's explanations and mention of cheating being encouraged in the situation.

Three…

Four…

Four…

Four?

Without a word, America reached over to the neat pile of cards and took the one that laid on its surface. He added it to his hand and resisted a smirk as best as he could but wasn't able to mask the twitching at the corner of his lips. Romano had been the only one to notice – at the exception of me – and cautiously reached for the pile just as America did but exposing his hand to Italy.

Italy peaked over and took notice of what his brother already had. Two fives, one eight, a queen and a king and a two. He couldn't tell if it was good or bad because, as he had mentioned before, the rules seemed complicated and confused him. He had never been one for a game of cards as complex as Poker, let alone Liar's Poker.

"Gah! Italy!" Romano screeched as he shielded his cards again, "Don't look at my cards!"

"B-but America said that you had to cheat…" Italy mumbled shyly.

"But you're my _fratello_! We don't do that to each other!" Romano schooled.

"Oh can it," America laughed bitterly, "You were looking at his cards when he was staring at them intensely before I took the first card."

"_Fratello!_"

"It was to help!" He defended.

An argument erupted from the conversation as did laughter and a bunch of other emotions that my guests shouldn't have been feeling at the current time. It was, frankly, unbelievable that the four could still find the courage to laugh among themselves in a way that would convince one they were mocking the dead.

Perhaps they were.

Four.

Three.

Four?

Four…

Five…

Five.

Five!

Fuck!

How could I have been so foolish, so oblivious, so blind, so…so…idiotic!? How could I have forgotten? How could I have been so careless?

How?

There were five left! Not four! Five! The fifth was that wretched Canada! And I had let him out of my sight for the longest time! Who knows what the little bastard could have uncovered?

Immediately dismissing the potentially heart warming scene my guests were sharing, I began scouting the house frantically, desperate to find the rogue nation that had escaped my vigilant eyes.

So stupid!

I found him a short amount of time later, walking down the corridor that would lead to the only unexplored area of the house and he seemed rather sceptic about everything. He had most likely noticed the evident trail of blood on the floor and was following it to where it lead. Seeing as he hadn't seem to have done much damage to my _operation_, I decided to follow him closely and watch as he discovered what could have saved them and ruined me.

He warily peaked into my secret room once he had arrived and entered shamelessly once he observed that no one was there. With quiet steps he entered and grimaced at the huge puddle of half dried blood on the ground before stepping around it and making his way to my desk. He quickly fiddled through the papers on it and then fished through the drawers until his fingers brushed against the black leather of my journal.

The one I used to keep track of the events unfolding at the current moment and my plans for the future. The black book could have been my demise and their key to survival but I had found Canada just in time. If only – for his sake and that of the others – he would have been faster…

If only…

Carefully, as if the book were an ancient relic menacing to disintegrate at the least bit of unnecessary agitation, he opened it and began reading through the yellowed papers. I peered from behind as he read the first page.

My first entry.

_I've never taken much of a liking to writing in journals as much as some other countries but felt it to be necessary at this point of time. Since I plan to rid myself of the most powerful and troublesome countries the world has to offer, I find it in my best interest to keep track of my every move and write down my future ones as to review them for potential mistakes. Seeing as what I'll be attacking will need to be up to perfection I must take my time into studying the ten countries of my demise carefully in order to avoid my identity to be unravelled. _

The entry was yet to be finished with but Canada flipped through some more and stopped half way to the middle.

_I've become quite familiar with the habits of America. He's a predictable boy for the most part but there's always a certain…element of surprise that I'll have to take into consideration once I finalise my plan…_

He flipped to the approximate center of my journal and found my nursery rhyme, the version that I had left incomplete due to writer's block and lack of creativity to kill... I wondered how he would react once he realised that the deaths were all planned and, thus far, accomplished in perfect order.

_Ten little nations went out to dine, one choked his little self and then there were nine. – China._

_Nine little nations with a new playmate, he played too fiercely and then there were eight – France._

_Eight little nations questioning their brethren, one discovered the fatal answer and then there were seven – Japan._

_Seven little nations on a island in the tropics, one was scorched to death and then there were six – Russia._

_Six little nations…_

I saw his facial expressions falter as he flipped through the pages some more. He was visibly bothered by the fact that everything had been premeditated.

_Whenever I think about it, I've never given my name out to this journal. Considering this thing isn't necessarily a real being that can think and speak I see no harm in revealing it but I fail to understand the point. If it doesn't have a mind of its own to register that one is revealing secrets to it, why would some feel the necessity to admit to their name? Nevertheless, perhaps its simply best for me to admit to it here lest the insanity takes over and throws my name from my memory to the abyss._

I didn't let him finish the entry but he had probably skimmed my name before I had the time to place my hand on his shoulder. As he looked upon my face his mind was probably puzzling the letters he had managed to retain and form my name with them. I saw Canada's eyes widen in fear and in shock; questions flashed before his eyes but the only one I was able to read was: _how did I not notice him_?

I leaned in gently, feeling his body begin to tremble under my touch. It seemed almost as intimate as the trembles of anticipation from one's lover and – perhaps for an instance – he would become something about as close as I exacted my pleasure upon him. However, my definition of pleasure may not have matched his own.

"Don't forget to scream for me." I whispered huskily with a chuckle rolling behind my words.

And without further ado, I nailed a blow to his gut which winded him briefly before I jerked his head up and stabbed my fingers through his glasses and into his eyes. It was at that moment that a beautiful scream resonated from his vocal cords to my ears and dispersed across the mansion. I was sure the others in the living room would hear it at some point but it would take them some time on locating its whereabouts.

And so, as the others tried to find poor Canada, I continued to torture him with violent, cruel blows that had his body beg for an end. Oh how he wanted to die moments before the hurried steps of his brother were heard from down the corridor.

"Canada!" He yelled.

I watched the second largest nation in the world's blood caked face with loving eyes once I noticed tears pour down his ruined cheeks.

"Canada!"

The blonde opened his mouth to speak, to yell, to whisper – to do something that never happened because he knew he would die soon. With a mother's gentleness, I kissed his cheek before stabbing my bloodied fingers through his throat. I was only blessed by hearing the first few sounds of his choking when I was forced to free as to protect my identity.

America was the first to burst into the room, panic painting his face and then despair and other mixes of emotions once he spotted his brother, dead, eyes carved out, throat caved in, on the ground. America fell to his knees, this time he was unable to hold back the tears and cried Canada's name as he began to shake him.

"Come on bro! Wake up!" He cried desperately, "You can't just leave me like this! Wake up! Damn it!"

Germany entered the room followed by Romano and Italy. He grabbed America the same way Canada had and dragged him away regardless his struggles to stay in place.

"No! Let me go! Not again! He's not dead! He's my brother!" He cried at the top of his lungs, "Canada! Canada!"

"America! Get a hold of yourself!" Germany barked harshly.

"He's my brother! He's my fucking brother!" America roared, "First France, then England, now him! No! He can't be gone! Not him! Not like the others!"

Seeing as there was no point in trying to keep him calm so close to the scene of the horrid murder, Germany dragged him off anywhere away from the room while the Italian brothers stayed in place and examined the room.

"_Fratello_." Romano mumbled after a moment.

"_Si_?"

"I hope you realised by now," Romano paused after a moment, "It wasn't one of us."

"But it has to be…" Italy argued weakly.

"_Fratello_, look at the evidence, the facts." Romano had raised his voice slightly but calmed once he saw Canada and a pitiful expression took over. "We were all together, you, me, Germany and America. Canada was completely alone. I can't be one of us…"

"But there's no one else on this island…"

Romano stared through the ruined room and scanned a little left to Canada where he noticed my black leather journal. He picked it up and examined the thing closely when he opened it and read the one part of the page that wasn't ripped off.

"_Five little nations, one of them ignored, He wandered off to find the truth, and there were four_."

* * *

**So who actually believed me when I said that they would be surprised by who dies this chapter? xD**

**No one reads these so eh, I doubt I'll get an answer on that one xP**

**Anyways, I don't know if I'll upload all that fast or whatever so you guys might wait a while for the next chapter. I also want to announce that I WILL BE MAKING TWO ALTERNATIVE ENDINGS!**

**Why? Because I feel that you guys would preffer one over the other and I'll be leaving a supplementary mystery behind once this story ends. I mean, let's face it, we all knew about how many chapters there would be to this story if everyone was continuously killed off each chapter xP**

**Anyways,**

**REJOICE AT THE KNOWLEDGE THAT YOUR GUESSES ARE RIGHT UNTIL PROVEN WRONG (or right) IN THE FOLLOWING CHAPTER!**

**That's actually a quote I've been wanting to say for the longest time lol xP AND I MADE IT UP! I'm so smart =w=**

**SEE YOU ALL NEXT CHAPTER!**

**EDIT: **Liar's Poker is an actual card game that you can play. I found it only and basically wrote down the rules in America's speech but when I was reading it I was like: 'WTF I don't get this...' which is why Italy is all confused because I was too xP But if you get it, play it or something and then tell me about it later. If you want more details on it I can totally provide to you the website link where I found the game Liar's Poker


	8. A Taste for Death

**I didn't think I'd have this chapter out today but I guess anything can happen lol**

**Anyways, I have more to say at the end of this chapter so until then,**

**ENJOY!**

* * *

Oh how America sunk in depression as the three – France, England and Canada – he had only cared for in the world were officially dead, with no hopes of them ever returning. Never had the pompous nation ever been so quiet, so dead of emotion, so dead to the world.

After having dragged the lifeless bodies of his loved ones into their respective rooms as to rest in somewhat peace, the American sat at the bottom of the stairs, mourning, lamenting… _dying_. The outcomes to the losses he had suffered would be rather evident in the end but what I was curious about was how long it would take for him to succumb; how long it would take to have that heroic flame of his die out, extinguished, for all eternity.

"What should we do about America?" Italy whispered as he peaked from the living room to the staircase. "He's not well…"

"There's nothing we can do." Romano growled, "It sucks but we just have to wait."

Germany nodded in confirmation and thus plunged themselves in silence a while more. Italy's gaze wandered from the depressed American to those of the two others who occupied the same location and then to the window. The rain was still pelting hard against the fogged glass and the sky was illuminated from time to time by bolts of lightning. He stared at it for a moment, clearly pondering on a matter that would soon be revealed for Italy was never one to keep his mouth shut.

"What time do you think it is?" Italy asked after a moment, his eyes still fixated on what the window would allow him to see. "The clouds are really dark outside, if the sun's out, it wouldn't show much…"

Romano and Germany looked out the window as well and thought. "It…it's probably just been a couple of hours." Romano mumbled.

"I don't think so…" Germany responded, "I think a day might have passed."

"That's stupid." Romano snapped immediately which surprised his brother and Germany. However, they must have reassured themselves he was on edge because everyone they once knew was dying one after the other. "If it's been a day, then why aren't we tired?"

"Because adrenaline has been pumping through our veins ever since Russia's death." Germany snapped back, he too was grandly annoyed and tired of living in anxiety, of fear, of wondering who would be the next to die. "When Russia died, we all realised we were in trouble because, whoever did it, was strong enough to get rid of him and we all know Russia isn't one to go down so easily. And then, a few hours later, England died gruesomely which augmented the adrenaline rush due to the increasing need for survival. Then Canada died and we're now only four nations left to survive. We used to be ten! It's only natural that we're so on edge, filled with the rush of survival, unwilling to feel tired, or to sleep for that matter, as to risk death itself!"

And then, more silence.

Everything Germany had said about the reason of lacking exhaustion or the need to sleep was in fact true – to no one's surprise – but what must have gotten to the most of them was the mention that they used to be ten.

China.

France.

Japan.

Russia.

England.

Canada.

They had all died one after the other, horribly, and no one had been able to saved them. Then there was also the thought of that one of them might have been the one causing all the chaos – which it wasn't, but that was something only Romano had figured out. The Southern Italian had more wit than I gave him credit for but the question now – in his regard – was whether or not he would manage to solve the crime, discover the murderer and save the life of those remaining with him. Needless to say, if he ever got close to doing any of the mentioned things, I would put an end to his miserable life immediately as to protect myself and my plan.

"But…how could a day have passed…?" Italy wondered aloud, "Without us noticing…?"

Germany seemed to have calmed down the second Italy uttered the first word and sighed deeply as to rid himself of his frustration towards the general situation.

"With everything that happened…the deaths of our friends, it's only natural that we didn't notice a thing." The German stated.

"But…it all happened so fast…"

"It wasn't going to have happened slowly, Italy." Germany smiled bitterly.

Italy opened his mouth as if to say something else but stopped after reconsidering what he was about to say. He closed his mouth and sunk onto the floor, scanned the room and looked at America again.

He hadn't shifted from his initial position. He was still slumped over himself, in the stair case, staring at the pool of England's blood that all refused to touch or clean for more reasons than one. Italy frowned at the sight, clearly sympathising with America as best as he could before tearing his gaze away as to concentrate on the floor.

"Before he died…" Italy muttered, "Russia said that hate could be more powerful than we could ever imagine…"

There was more silence, Germany visibly wanted to agree with the late Russia's statement but decided silence was the better option.

"But do you think…" Italy paused, struggling with his words, "That one of us could hate each other enough to do this…?"

"Perhaps…" Germany guessed slowly.

Romano growled, he was probably annoyed by Italy's naivety. "That's why it's _not_ one of us." Romano sighed. "I already discussed this with Italy but—"

"What do you mean it's not one of us?" Germany interrupted. The theory intrigued him but rendered him visibly confused due to the fact of being sure there was no one else on the island.

Of course, in a sense, he was right.

"Well doesn't Canada's death confirm that?" Romano sighed exasperated as he tried to control his anger, "None of us were there when he died. America may have gotten there first but he wasn't alone for long enough to have been able to kill his brother in such a way."

"But there's no one else here!" Germany snapped; it was as if he wanted to believe, to accept what Romano was suggesting as the truth – which it was – but there was no proof for the other deaths to have been dismissed in such a way. "It has to be one of us, there's no one else."

"Well how can you be so sure!?" Romano was steadily growing impatient. "We may have searched the entire island but it's not like we could have a view of everywhere at the same time! Think about it, when we were searching the house, he may have been outside, waiting for us to finish; or when we were looking outside, he may have been _inside_ and observing us. Then there's also that secret room that we discovered only a few hours ago!"

"If he were one of us, then he wouldn't have had to hide the whole time! He'd just be in the clear as long as he'd keep up his act!" Germany argued. I began to wonder why the blond man was so adamant with his theory; one would assume he would be happy or relieved that no one from their group was the killer. "And the deaths! Think about it! There may have been three cases in which it _possibly_ couldn't have been any of us like during France's, Japan's and Canada's deaths but there's nothing that renders us free from suspicion! I was accused of having killed Japan, it wasn't me and I know it but the proof incriminates me!"

"Well it all comes back to Canada's death then!" Romano hissed in pure annoyance. "The four of us were all together! America may have gotten there first – as I said before – but if you take in consideration the state in which Canada's body was found, it couldn't have been him. The body was completely mutilated, especially on the level of the face, and to have such a bloody mess spread around the room like that to barely taint America's clothes is impossible!"

"Well when did Canada go missing? We didn't notice until we heard him yell from where he was dying." Germany asked now glaring at the Southern Italian.

"I remember him being there when we found England, after America came down the stairs." Romano answered slowly, "He guided America away and…that was it."

"He could have taken _that_ opportunity to have hidden Canada to torture him later." Germany stated in all seriousness.

"Do you realise how ridiculous you sound!? It's almost as if you want the murderer to _be_ America!" Romano criticised. "When Canada leaded him away, they were heading towards the living room, how was it that Canada's body was found at the other end of the house!? Explain that!"

"Why are you defending him!?" Germany growled, "All the odds are against him! He's the only one left with the possibility to have killed China, calculated the explosion as to only kill one of us that so happened to be France, had enough hatred in his heart to push Russia into the fire, destroy England during the ten minutes we gave him to scout the upper floor and, finally, have dragged Canada to his doom! The odds are against him! It has to be him!"

"What the hell is wrong with you!?" Romano snapped jumping to his feet, "Weren't you supposed to be _level headed_ or something!? You're not taking anyone else in consideration for that math!"

"Then enlighten me!" Germany barked.

"Anyone one of us could have planted the bomb that killed France," Romano began, bawling his fists in an attempt to control rage or ready himself to punch the German nation. "We all hate Russia or strongly dislike him because some of the things he did to us was utterly horrible, notably what he did to _you—_"

"Are you suggesting that I'm the killer!?" Germany roared as he jumped to his feet as well, his hands made into fists.

"No I—"

"What if you're the killer?" Germany asked, his voice was strangely calm but enraged all at once as he roughly poked Romano's chest. "That's what killers do, don't they? They try to switch the situation around! You know, I'm starting to think you're working with America!"

"Stop it!" Italy cried, finally deciding to interrupt the argument as to avoid a confrontation. "You are all being ridiculous! Romano, you need to sit down! Your leg's broken and we have to keep it from getting worse!" he then looked at Germany, his eyes filled with hurt. "Germany, you have to…calm down…it's scary…"

There was a moment of silence but many things were understood during that exchange of gazes between the two. Finally, Germany tore his gaze away and let himself fall to the ground with exasperation.

"Damn it…this thing is messing with my head…" Germany growled burying his face in his hands. "This is so frustrating…"

"It's hard on all of us." Romano stated bitterly, "But we don't go around snapping at everyone like you."

"_Fratello!_" Italy warned sending his brother a stern look.

Romano shrugged it off, not bothering to apologize. He examined his brother and then Germany who was staring emptily at the floor before scanning the room for America whom he did not find.

"Where did America go?" Romano asked. "He's not in the corner anymore."

Germany's head snapped up and his eyes looked around the room hastily, "He's gone…" Germany mumbled, "Where could he have gone?"

Romano stood, almost falling over but managing to maintain balance before leaping towards the entrance of my wondrous home. "We have to find him." Romano stated, leaning on the frame for support, "That sicko is going to get him if we don't."

Germany was about to argue with Romano just like they had earlier but decided that either way, it would have been best to generally have visuals on the American. Italy stood to help his brother as did Germany.

"Fine, we'll start with outside." Germany stated thus guiding them towards the entrance doors.

"Why outside?" Romano asked.

"Because he might have gone out for some air," Germany explained, "In his current state of mind, the storm shouldn't bother him."

And so they left the house, to wander just a few feet away in a raging storm as America stepped into the pantry quietly. I had entered the kitchen not long after him, keeping calm and quiet as he began to examine all the open boxes one by one.

"To think…" America mumbled under his breath subtly, "That if they're really poisoned…I could end it all now…"

"And you should…" I whispered softly as I ventured closer.

I had hoped that he would have thought of my voice as something from his mind and not bother looking back but he did and he saw me. His eyes widened and, without thinking much, he had backed into the pantry.

"You…" he whispered absent minded.

"Me, me, me." I smirked walking closer.

"Why…?"

"Because hate can be more powerful than one could ever imagine…" I answered grinning.

"You…realise that I can stop you now." America stated more than asked.

"You could, but you won't." I replied calmly leaning against the door frame that lead to inside the pantry. "I can see it in your eyes, eminent death. And I heard you. You want to end it. Who can blame you? Your entire family died just moments ago and all you want to do is to join them."

America said nothing and gazed at the ground, guilt filling them but the death never leaving. I wandered into the pantry and embraced him softly as would someone intent on comforting another.

"You know they others won't care…" I whispered into his ear, "They were accusing you just moments ago…they think you did it and, in the end, the odds are against you. When help shows, you'll be the one blamed for the crimes, you'll be the one to be dishonoured and you'll be the one rotting in solitude…but, if you die…you'll see them again…France…England…and Canada…"

I felt his tense muscles relax for a brief moment before become tense once more. It was understandable; I wasn't expecting it to be easy to convince America to commit suicide.

"You're…trying to trick me…" America stated as he pushed me away but I noticed that his voice was weak, trembling and hiding the longing desire to see those he loved again.

"I'm no trickster." I said, "I merely dictate the desires those wish to ignore. And you wish to die, to see your family again and to rid yourself of these horrible emotions, of this horrible situation. I know that's what you want because I see it in your eyes."

And for another short moment, I saw America give in but weakly regain control of his thoughts to block out death. However, I could still see it lurking about him; I knew that it wouldn't take much more to have capitulate, to have him do what I wanted him to do.

"Y-your words are poison…" He struggled faintly.

"But of everything I've so recently said, is it not true? Do you not wish the sweet embrace of death to carry you into the afterlife where your family awaits?" I asked smiling softly as I normally did. "I've not lied once and you know it. Needless to say, in the end, you know there's only one way to ever see that family you loved so much ever again and, when you think about it, weren't they your only reason to be alive? What's the point of living until the end of time if you don't have your brother or your father-like figures with you to cherish moments and memories? They miss you, you know."

And with that final remark, I left the pantry and walked out of his view and waited to hear him pick through boxes and eat the poisoned food. There was a moment of long silence in which I subconsciously held my breath before I heard the fumbling of hands with boxes and then the crunches of crackers as America ate a generous portion of the toxic snacks. The cyanide kicked in rapidly and I could hear him clutch at his throat, gasping for air and hitting everything around him in a fit of panic.

But, suddenly, all the noise stopped when a loud thump to the ground was heard. I then walked in and laughed at the sight of the super power, sprawled on his back, his face as blue as his vacant eyes, a thin line of drool trailing down the side of his mouth. It was so funny, so ironic that the demise of this country known for its obesity had lost his life because of food.

Karma.

After leaving a message from my beautiful poem, I evacuated the premises and watched as the three returned from the outdoors, drenched and dismayed by finding nothing. That was when Romano noticed the open door.

"Let's check the kitchen…"

And without any questions, they entered the kitchen and were greeted by the sound of crackers crunching beneath their feet.

"There's a message…" Germany mumbled before reading the verse I had left behind, constructed with poisoned crackers. "_Four little nations hiding with an empty pantry, The loss and hunger got to one, and then there were three._"

Their gazes quickly shifted to the now empty pantry where America's body laid, his face painted blue by the lack of oxygen that had killed him. Something snapped in Romano at that moment, it looked like a flash of lightning that passed in his eyes that no one else but me saw and I smiled widely, unable to control myself as the Southern Italian began to laugh and laugh and laugh while the thunder played like ambience music to add to the insanity.

* * *

**I hate writing a long A/N at the beginning of chapters lol**

**Anyways, so if none of you noticed, basically, the title of each chapter depicts how someone is going to die with the use of key words. But that was just an FYI thing...**

**So there are three chapters left...I think... The two last chapters will have alternative endings and I've rechecked all the chapters again just to make sure that the two killers I have chosen work so if you wanna try your hand at another possibility for a killer, be my guest!**

**Though, I must admit some of you will find one of them very OOC xP But that doesn't matter, they're portraying the role of an insane psycho so..._dans la vie..._It's justified U_U**

**Anyways, I don't know when the next chapter is going to be out but I'll be totally honest here, it can be in a few days just like in can be in two months from now. I have school, it's my last year, so I kind of have to concentrate to have Universities look at me and be like 'DIS CHICK IS THE SHIZZNADS' and I'm also subtly looking for a job...subtly...VERY subtly...**

**But yea, so, SEE YOU NEXT CHAPTER!**


	9. A Two for One

**Did some one realise that all of my titles for chapters foreshadow what's going to happen next? *HINT HINT***

**This chapter is short but I wasn't going to add things to it to make it longer because it was just going to kill it. This chapter is short for a reason and its because I could only put in a certain amount of what happens before writing the two alternative endings to make it work. So two more chapters and everything ends, my friends.**

**ENJOY!**

* * *

Of course what was to happen next was obvious. As Romano continued to laugh and the two remaining stared at him with a look of fear and shock, he backed away, almost tripping over his broken leg. He held his face as he tried to calm the insane fit of laughter that had taken him over but failed miserably and laughed all the more.

"_Fratello_…"

"We're going to die…" Romano chuckled, "We're all going to die here…"

"Calm down Romano…" Germany cooed softly.

"Calm down!?" He repeated with an exclamation of hysteria. "You want me to calm down!? We're going to _die_! We need to leave _now_!"

"We can't leave now." Germany reminded pointing at the window, "There's a storm."

"We'll be fine as long as we stick together…" Italy encouraged softly. "We just can't separate ourselves—"

"We've been saying that for _days_ now!" Romano snapped, "We've been reminding ourselves that we needed to stay together but someone always found a reason to leave and die! And the same thing is going to happen to us unless we leave now!"

"We can't leave now!" Germany repeated; his tone raising. This was truly getting interesting and I was officially ready to add a little beauty to the situation when the moment would arise. "If we try, we die. Our best chance is to stay here."

"This place is a fucking slaughter house!" Romano yelled, "Do you want to end up like the others? Poisoned by cyanide or burned to death or brutally murdered!? I don't want to and I'm getting the fuck out of here, with or without you!"

"Romano!"

Lightning struck the house at that precise moment and I couldn't help but be entertained by Mother Nature as the house was plunged into total darkness immediately after flashing its blinding light.

The power was out for a short amount of time but that was enough for Romano to limp to the door, regardless the excruciating pain he must have been feeling at the given moment, and leaped out the door. However, at the same time, Germany was shouting something to Italy – I didn't bother to listen much – thus neither of them heard the door slam shut. I knew the electricity would return eventually and so I decided to follow Romano out of the house quietly.

He ran, almost tripping and slipping a few times before reaching a small cliff with a small drop to the sea. That same small drop had a few sharp rocks waiting at the bottom, to impale anything that fell from the given area.

"Careful." I said loud enough to be heard over the thunder and torrid rain. "You might fall."

He turned around with a violent jolt which almost caused him to fall off the edge. He flailed his arms around helplessly as if it would help him regain his balance – which it did and it also gave me time to approach him, an inch barely distancing us. He gasped and I only smirked widely.

"Plop." I giggled before poking his chest with just enough strength to have him finally tip over and plunge to his death.

I cocked my head to the side a little as I gazed while his body fell onto a particularly sharp spear-shaped rock that stabbed through the middle of his chest. Oddly enough, he didn't die on impact which might have been explained to all the adrenaline he had been feeling and his nervous system working on hyper drive. I watched as he tried to lean forward to see what had just hit him, he then spat out some blood before the life flashed right out of his brown eyes and his body went limp.

It was a funny sight indeed, as if the image forever carved into my mind was taken from one of those dramatic American movies with rough waves boxing in the picture for a bigger effect of dramatisation. So funny.

Hilarious.

And the only thing that could have been funnier would be seeing little Italy's reaction once he'd see his brother.

Dead.

Impaled.

Hilarious.

Truly hilarious.

Soon enough, I heard the faint sound of the front doors of my home creaking open followed by the desperate chanting of the recently deceased's name. It was my cue to hide away and await the moment when they would discover that they were the only two left alive.

"There are steps!" Italy exclaimed as he noticed his brother's foot steps in the mud. I suddenly worried for mine but figured that the end was approaching, that they would both die anyhow within the following hour, before the elixir's effects would annul.

"Right, come on!" Germany ordered grabbing the Italian's hand and dragging him to the cliff guided by the foot prints.

They stopped a few meters away from the edge, fearing the worse for the steps had ended but new ones appeared; mine. Italy hesitantly got closer to the edge al the while squeezing Germany's hand to express his worry. There was need of just one peak over the edge to reduce Italy into a shrieking pile of sorrow.

"Romano! Romano!" He yelled as he tried to get closer to the edge but Germany held him back for fear of having him falling over as well. "_Fratello_!"

"Italy stop it!" Germany growled yanking the Italian into his embrace. Italy struggled and pushed against the German's broad chest, refusing to believe the fact but Germany only held him tighter. His eyes began to water up in pity for Italy. "He's…he's gone…"

"No! He's still alive! We can still save him!" Italy persisted as he doubled his efforts to break free.

"Italy…" Germany whispered. "I'm so…so sorry…but…" Italy stopped all movements as if to listen harder to what the taller male was going to finish saying. "He's gone…we're still mortals…"

And just like that, Italy collapsed onto Germany's chest and began crying which wasn't perceptible with the amount of tears raining from the sky but evident through the strangled sounds he emitted. How wondrous it was to see him cry.

To see him suffer.

To see him cringe in pain.

There was a certain satisfaction I gained from this and couldn't wait to finish with everything.

"I don't understand…" he said at some point through heavy sobs. "Why…how could someone hate so much…?"

Germany just stroked the Italian's hair soothingly, "I don't know…" He cooed, "But I'm going to make sure that you get out of this alive. I'll protect you no matter what."

How touching and hilarious.

Oh, foolish Germany, if only you knew what fate awaited you…

If only you knew…

"Germany…?" Italy asked after some moment of silent reflection. "Where's the poem…?"

"What do you mean?" Germany queried.

"Every time one of us died, there were always two verses of a poem left behind." Italy stated, he looked around the ground to see if he could find it but it was nowhere to be found – I had placed it elsewhere.

"I guess…but there's none around…"Germany stated peering around as well.

Of course, I hadn't forgotten about the verse, I had merely placed it elsewhere for the rain would have washed it away if I would have kept it in the location of the third last death.

"I think we should go back indoors…" Germany said, "We'll catch a cold if we stay out here too long but now we have to stay together. We can't separate."

And I smiled.

Oh, if only they knew what I had planed for them, if only they hadn't dismissed my foot prints so quickly then maybe they would have survived but, in the end, it was never meant to be.

They trotted back indoors and stop at the entrance, their eyes widening once they spotted the puddles I had left behind leading to the living room. "Germany…someone else is here…" Italy whispered moving closer to the taller nation.

Germany nodded and took the lead forward, holding onto the Italian's hand as tightly as he could without harming him. Wearily, Germany poked his head into the room and scanned it; once he noticed that no one was present, he dared to take a step in and allow Italy to do the same. Both of their eyes now rested on a gun I had laid on the floor with a note.

"This…" Germany whispered bitterly but interrupted himself. He dropped Italy's hand and ventured towards the objects I had left behind. He picked up the gun and examined it before looking the note over and reading it aloud. "_Three little nations in need of rescue, One tried to escape, and then there were two. Two little nations left with a gun, He sacrificed himself, and then there was one."_

There was now a weighing silence in the room, what I wanted was quietly understood and a decision would have to be made.

"He wants us…" Italy began but his voice trailed off.

"Not us…" Germany stated taking a look at the bullet chamber only to find one. "Just one of us…"

And then there was more silence. Italy eyes widened dramatically with fear of the inevitable decision to come. Germany snapped the chamber close and examined the gun carefully, and then Italy.

"You…you can hear us…can't you?" He asked speaking loudly.

I smiled, hidden brilliantly. "Of course." I replied.

"If I do this…" Germany began earning a jolt from Italy, "Will you let Italy go?"

I remained silent for a moment before answering. "I've never been one to refuse the dying wish of a man…or a nation." I chuckled. "I will let him _go_."

"Germany!" Italy shrieked taking a step forward, "Don't."

He smiled softly and pressed the cannon to his temple. "Italy…" he said softly. "This has been hell for all of us…but I think…what we feared the most was death because…until now, we've never had a reason to fear it…"

"Germany…don't…" Italy nearly begged as he slowly advanced.

"_Ich liebe dich..._" he said quickly before closing his eyes tightly and pulling the trigger.

And at that precise moment, it had seemed as if the world had gone completely quiet. Even the loud thump of Germany's body once it collided with the floor seemed abnormally quiet just like Italy's heart wrenching scream. The proper sound level returned when the lonesome Italian collapsed over his German comrade's chest, sobbing loud and heavy tears.

Of the satisfaction, the joy of seeing him at his lowest how wonderful it was for me…how wonderful indeed…

My steps resonated loudly as I walked around my house. Italy continued sobbing like a child, ignoring the impending doom that came with the knowledge of my nearing presence. I peaked in the living room – just like they had – and smiled warmly at the sight of displayed before me lit by the lightning booming around.

"And then there was one." I chimed stepping into the room. Italy was immediately rendered to silence but refused to look back. Perhaps he was scared?

"Why…?" he whispered. "Why would you do this…?"

"Because revenge solves everything." I laughed. "What would you have done? What would you have done after everything you had was destroyed or taken away? And then you were pushed to the side…forgotten? _Erased_?"

Italy still didn't turn around. He continued to hold onto Germany's corpse. "I don't know…" he whispered. "But…what you did was horrible…"

"Well there's no bringing them back." I laughed. "What's dead is dead."

"I know…there's just…" Italy paused, and for a moment, I thought he would look bad but he didn't. "One last thing…what is this going to do…? What is it going to achieve?"

And I smiled widely. "Don't mistake this for the end, Italy. I'm far from done." He froze having me stop speaking for just a moment. "Once I finish with you…I'll select ten other countries and have the same process repeat itself as well…needless to say that my murder methods will change."

"Finish with me…?" Italy repeated. "But you promised—"

"I was never one to keep promises." I chuckled walking closer. "I lie, deceive all the time. I'll say what someone wants to hear if it'll lead them to doing what I say or what I want." I leaned forward to be able to whisper in Italy's ear, "You know he loved you? That last thing he said was his confession and all he ever wanted was to see you or at least know that you survived this whole thing…so I used it to my advantage to have him kill himself…"

"But—"

"No buts, _Veneziano_…" I purred softly slipping a hand on his shoulder. "I am a deceiver and I will forever _be_ one. Would you like me to tell you the ten following victims?" No answer. "Belarus, Ukraine, Hungary, Austria, Prussia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Cuba. They're the next ones to die. And there's nothing you can do to save them…"

"My name…" he whispered, his body began to tremble. "How do you—"

"There are no secrets that escape me…" I replied, "But it seems that your time is finally up. Farewell _Veneziano_, let it be known that you were the one I hated the most. You had everything I ever wanted and now, you will have nothing."

_One little nation left all alone,_

_His end drew to a close, he should have known._

_Thus, they all died._

How naïve he was to believe that I would keep such a foolish promise. He should have known. All of them, they all should have known.

* * *

_Ich liebe dich_ – I love you (in German)

* * *

**So any last guesses?**

**I guess you guys are going to go lazy on my ass and be like: 'Imma figure out next chapter anyways' and all be disappointed like...This is your FINAL oppurtunity to finalise your theories for both alternative killers! I WILL NAME ALL WHO COMMENT AND GOT THE WRONG GUESSES AT THE BEGINNING OF THE CHAPTER(s)!**

**So that should encourage you to gimme your answers xP Even if you think that I'll just look over all the other reviews to see who said what, I won't. I'm JUST looking at the ones posted for this one so...HAHAHAA! I'M FORCING YOU TO TELL ME WHO YOU THINK IT IS!**

**so...**

**SEE YOU NEXT CHAPTER!**

**PS: I'll be uploading the two alternative endings at the same time so the wait will be longer...**


	10. ENDING 1 - A Return from the Dead

**Why hello there my sexy followers ;p**

**What? Odd you say? Out of character? Pff! I know not of what you speak of!**

**I don't know wth is wrong with me, I'm actually super happy that I finally finished this (it was actually done for about two weeks now but writing the other alternative ending was just a pain in the ass) so yay :D**

**Now I said that I would write the users of who was wrong at the beginning of this chapter but for this ending, I found it would be much easier to write THE ONLY ONE WHO ACTUALLY GOT IT RIGHT!**

**Yeah, that's right, just one of you got it U_U**

**Anyways, there were some good guesses out there - Shia Leboeuf (don't remember how to write his last name so sue me) being the best one xP**

**No it's not Shia Leboeuf.**

**But yea, so this girl kept second guessing herself so I'm not sure if this counts as a right answer or anything but I'll let it count this once xP**

**CONGRADULATIONS FOR HAVING THE ONLY RIGHT ANSWER:**

_Seqka711_

**NOW ENJOY!**

* * *

The following day marked the end of the torrid storm that had not ceased until all of my victims would lay on the ground dead. How fortunate I had been to have Mother Nature on my side during this plan of mine that would return me to the top, where I had once been. Of course, I have no memory of being just one but surely China would have remembered the old me, when it was just me, but now he laid dead on a bed in my mansion and could utter no more word.

As expected, a few hours following sunrise, twenty planes made their way to my lonesome island, only half of them landed to pick up their countries. They had been rather calm as they excited their air craft but once they spotted the dismantled corpse of France spread across the runaway, their attitudes changed dramatically.

"Who is that!?" Demanded the American president, scanning the eyes of the other leaders of the world. "Tell me that's not one of our representatives!"

Ironically, the French president peered closer to one of the bits of France – that part of what remained of his head – only to recognize the silky blond hair that had been ruined by the explosion and the rain.

"France…" he whispered incredulously. "It's France…"

"How is that possible?" The German Chancellor asked searching the others for answers. "They're countries; they can't die from physical wounds unless the land is falling…"

"The economy's not all that good…" The French President admitted, "But it wasn't bad enough as to have him die from it…"

"What about the others?" The Canadian Prime Minister queried as he scanned the surroundings, "Where are the others?"

Worry overtook the leaders of the world and they all dashed towards the mansion along with a few guards to aid them if need would ever be. The first thing all of them noticed was the pool of blood at the bottom of the stairs and then its trail going in two directions; one of the leading into a small corridor, the other one leading up the stairs.

"Fuck…" the American President swore, "What the hell happened here?"

"Hell itself, most likely…" the Russian President hissed. "I'm heading upstairs to see where that end of the trail leads." He declared quickly as he began running up the stairs with his guards.

"I'll come too." The Italian Prime Minister said chasing after the Russian leader.

"Then I'm going to see where the other trail leads to." The Chinese President announced to his turn; the German Chancellor and Canadian Prime Minister decided to tag along as well.

The other remaining leaders had come to a consensus of exploring the other ends of the house in the hopes of finding their countries alive and safe but, of course, they wouldn't.

The Russian President and the Italian Prime Minister arrived to the top of the staircase and were confronted by two corridors. The trail of blood led to two different directions and thus the Russian leader decided to go left while the other would go right.

Through the quick investigation of all rooms, the two found that each trail of blood led to the crypt of Canada and the other led to England. The state of their bodies was horrid to the point of having nausea overtake all of them almost threatening each to spill out the contents of their stomach.

Once they managed to regain themselves, they had decided to look through all the other rooms finding the corpse of China, Japan, the gathering of most of France's limbs and the bed I had occupied covered in ashes.

They had not yet begun to search the outdoors but that time would soon approach thus forcing me to return to the location of my supposed death for them to find me, barely alive – or so I would fake.

While five of them separated to investigate the ends of both blood trails, the five remaining world leaders had ventured into the living room where they found mattresses, a card game but most importantly the corpse of Germany and Italy.

The two were arranged as if they had committed mutual suicide but the wounds on the Italian were what gave away the murder that had occurred. I had snapped his neck and carved his eyes out and stabbed him in the back a few times – not necessarily in that order. All I can really say about that death was that he suffered greatly before his heart stopped having his body fall over Germany.

Oddly enough, their hands that intertwined as Italy had fallen over. I had considered severing the bond but decided it would be more appropriate to leave them be. It would add to the pain the leaders would feel upon finding them – which it did.

"What the fuck…" the American President breathed with a heavy sigh. "This is horrible…"

"I just what to know who the bloody hell did this…" the English Prime Minister growled. "Which bloody idiot gave out information on the representatives and who was the twisted arse that did all of this…"

"I'm more curious on the how." The Japanese Prime Minister spoke quietly and calmly. "We're all aware that the representatives were immortal and that no physical wounds could kill them unless certain conditions were met but none of them were met…the murderer found a loop hole and killed all of them brutally, but the loop hole is a mystery to all of us…isn't it?"

All of them nodded, admitting that none of them knew about a loophole to kill off their land's representatives.

"I think the course of action we'll have to take is rather simple." The French President declared, "We'll have to start an international investigation to see which country has the loop hole."

"It's not that simple." The English Prime Minister retorted, "We'll need to keep the reasons to this investigation on the down low and focus on controlling the land. Who knows what will happen now that some of the representatives are dead? They were essential to the land's stability."

And at that moment, the five others that had left to investigate the end of the blood trails returned. "We found nothing on our end." The Chinese President informed, "Except for this."

He handed a journal to the American President who took it warily and read the only thing left in it. "_Five little nations, one of them ignored, He wandered off to find the truth, and there were four._"

"That bastard's sick…" the American President growled closing the book harshly.

"News isn't too good on our end." The Russian President declared, "We discovered the corpse of China, Canada, England, Japan and the remaining limbs of France."

"Japan!?" The Japanese leader exclaimed.

"It's not pretty." The Italian Prime Minister informed. "You might not want to see…"

But the Japanese Prime Minister had made up his mind and dashed up stairs to find the corpse of his representative as did the other leaders who were informed of the death of their representatives.

"What about America?" The American President asked. "Did you find him?"

The Russian shook his head. "_Nyet_. The ones that have yet to be found are America, Romano – Italy's brother – and Russia." He listed.

I dared only to watch a tad longer because I knew they weren't done looking through the mansion. Immediately, the rest spread across the house but it wasn't long before the corpse of America was found in the pantry, his face as blue as the last time I had seen it. There was some more mourning and swearing but soon they realised that two corpses were missing and thus they would have to search outdoors which was my cue to disappear to where I was to be left for dead.

I laid on the ground, over the pile of black wood that had burned out, ears attentive as they've ever been to hear them once they'd fine Romano impaled before me. I did hear a shriek from the Chancellor and shouts of shock from the other leaders but their steps were soon moving towards me and I would have to play the part of the fool.

"Russia!" my leader cried as he dashed towards me and knelt. "Fuck! He was bur—" he interrupted himself noticing my faint breathing. "He's…alive…"

"What?" The American President repeated astonished, "How?"

"I don't know but he's alive!" My boss began to yell in Russian for someone with medical experience to get here immediately.

In the end, I was chipped onto a helicopter and brought to the nearest country which happened to be Japan for medical care. As we left my home, I peeked to see that most of the planes that had arrived were now in flight and at a safe enough distance from the island. Stealthily, I pressed down on a detonator that had my island blowing up to bits in a matter of seconds. Seeing as I was close enough to the open door of the air craft, I had the detonator roll off and land in the vast ocean, never to be found again.

My burn wounds were quickly mended and I had them wait three days before pretending to awake from a coma. At this point, the only ones that had dared stay behind were my boss and the American President. Clearly, the Japanese Prime Minister would have his people to care for what with his representative dead.

"Where am I?" I asked feigning innocence.

"You're in Japan." My boss answered. "How do you feel?"

I sat up, not answering for a brief moment because I was trying so hard not to explode in laughter. "I…" a pause was needed before continuing. "I can't remember anything…why is that? Did you—"

"_Nyet_." My boss interrupted sharply. Of course, he didn't want me to inform the American President that my boss experimented on me as to discover devious ways to damage representatives deadly as to weaken the land. "We found you on an island in the middle of nowhere. You were the only one left alive. Barely."

"Are you sure there's nothing you remember?" The American President persisted. "Anything?"

"I remember…" I pretended to try hard and squinted my eyes shut as to have them believe that I was truly concentrating on remembering and not laughing my ass off. "A… fire…and a lot of rain…but that's it…"

"We found you burned badly." My boss informed. "And there had been a lot of rain ever since we dropped you off in that region…we couldn't get to you on the third day like we said we would…"

"If we did…the others might still be alive right now…" the American President mumbled bitterly. I could tell that if he could exchange my life for that of that stupid America's, he would in a heartbeat.

Selfish American pigs.

"Well, we'll let you rest now…" my boss declared as he guided the other President out of my room. "We'll be back in an hour or so. There are some things we have to discuss."

Seconds after I heard their steps fade away prior to my door shutting, I found myself in the middle of a horrible laughing fit. Oh how foolish, how foolish they were to believe I was ever so innocent!

What fools!

Idiots!

It was that stupidity that rubbed off on the other nations which ultimately caused their death!

But now, that time has passed with decades. The investigation they had envisioned had taken place but it had never succeeded.

For more reasons than one.

The recipe for the mortality elixir was something I found after snooping around for a long time through the belongings of England. The second I found it, I memorized it and then burned it immediately so that the secret would rest with me and me only.

And now, the time has finally come for me to repeat this cycle anew with my newest victims. However, before I decide how to go about my new murders I feel the need to describe in detail the way I had come to my salvation with my first successful murder mystery and the reasons to why I had decided to do so lest I forget along the way.

I am certain that the size of my land and its rich history is no mere coincidence, I am positive that once upon a time, when the world was one, I was that One. There was only me. But then my empire cracked beneath my feet due to the inevitability of change and the countries we now know arose from the debris and I emerged smaller than ever. Of course, if such a past was true, China would be the only one to know about it but as time ventured forward he must have forgotten what I used to be. Thus explaining the reason why the most powerful countries in the world were the first to disappear.

Now to enumerate how I committed every murder without being caught. I first began by taking out the only potential threat to revealing my identity, China. Since he has lived as long as I but is technically younger than myself – if excluding the fact that I was reduce to the size of a child once my empire was severed. Of course, there's no pleasure in committing a murder mystery if one does not include hints to revealing one's identity because there is then no thrill for the murderer if he does not have to fear discovery. Anyhow, the feast I had prepared for them was a perfect success merely because of luck. Anyone could have taken a portion of noodles with the specific poisoned garnish and devoured it thus ending them, but thankfully the one to consume it had been China. Hypothetically speaking, if it had been another, the outcome to this series of murder would have been completely different potentially ending with my demise and humiliation.

Following China's death was the one of the country of romance and wine; France. That one wasn't necessarily planed, it if had been anyone else, I would have been content for I knew that France wouldn't have been a particularly cunning detective or useful asset to ceasing the murders.

Next up was the murder of Japan. I had always been rather weary of said country because, even if he was shy and socially awkward, he definitely wasn't an idiot. I had noticed him mutter to himself a few times – as his habit was to mumble everything he thought when he was concentrating very hard on something. I heard but a few things that were audible enough for me to know that he was on the road of discovering who the murderer was thus alerting me to act. Even if Japan was meant to be one of the first few to pass away, I hadn't planned for him to be so soon. Besides China, none of them could have identified me with the hints I left behind however, it must have been things that I mentioned continuously in the olden days that hinted him to me. Nevertheless, he was dealt with rapidly, the added bonus that Germany had left his room wide open for me to venture forth, and take away one of my confiscated weapons was dearly welcomed.

Afterwards, there was the death of me. During that day I had had an insightful conversation with America and Italy. Especially Italy. The weak nation had been so upset by the chain of events that he had grown the amount of courage necessary to speak his melancholy to the strongest nations the world had to behold. I enjoyed explaining to him the reason for my actions without insinuating that it _was_ me and lecturing the both of them on hate. Additionally, taking the mortality elixir a few days prior to the beginning of my torment was a well thought of idea. What seemed to have convinced them all that it wasn't me was when I inflicted a wound upon myself and showed them that it wasn't healing. Regardless, I was glad to have the first shift once the bonfire was set for I could make myself disappear instantly and erase any suspicions that had already arisen depicting me as the killer – which I was. At that moment, when I decided it would be time for me to gather one of the bodies that I had hidden in the cellar – the door of which was hidden behind the refrigerator – and throw it into the fire as to have it impersonate my corpse, I had a lapse of sanity temporarily. For a moment I had seen myself threaten to actually push me to my death – or should I say torture for the elixir had worn off at that point? –but regained my sanity just before the deed would be done. And so, following that I went to my cellar and grabbed a body quickly and quietly only to throw it in the fire and have it impersonate myself. I observed it until the fire died out for the most part and then tied my scarf to it – I didn't want to damage it too much.

After my own faked demise, it was time to end the life of England. Of course, I had never planned for it to work so brilliantly but, in a way, it was to be expected because England was well known for having delusions of faeries quite often. My death must have pushed the limits of his remaining sanity for how could someone as powerful as I be (supposedly) defeated so easily with a simple push? Well, I allowed him run around my mansion like a lunatic before finally deciding to put an end to him. I was surprise how affectionate he seemed to show himself towards me but he probably thought I was a ghost or maybe just a faery – something supernatural that would not harm him or lead him to his death. But he was wrong. He was so compliant I almost felt sorry for what I was about to do – or make him do. With a few honey coated words I convinced him to claw through his throat and end his life because it would the only way for him to escape this nightmare and he did just that.

I never expected that death to have such a heavy blow on America. England might as well have been his family and the only father figure in his life but they had gotten into a huge fight some years back and their relationship has been somewhat tense ever since. Nevertheless, if that lost had caused him that much pain, one could only imagine how much more pain was added to the wound once his brother was killed brutally by my hands. Granted I did forget about the invisible nation but only because America always seemed to steal his place or what little presence he already had. I guess, in some way, I did him a favour by killing him and giving him the spot light for once but, in the end, I knew that Canada loved his brother even if he had been oppressed. Canada was actually meant to be killed before Japan but some events had occurred in which Japan was getting too close to solving the mystery yet this allowed Canada to get much further than he. Thankfully, for me, he was ended shortly and no harm was done.

Finally, after some harsh suffering and being accused mercilessly by Germany of being the killer yet defended by Romano, I decided to end America's life. He was in such a broken state of mind and was oozing death that I figured even after I revealed myself; he would still go through with killing himself. It took some time for something to happen thus causing him to leave the security of his three other companions but if I had to suggest anything, it would have been his will to die. Once the three others ran out of the house, chasing after him, fearing that he would be caught by me and killed, I left to find him in the kitchen where he was eyeing the pantry. The last bit of resistance I noticed in his eyes shocked me and at that precise moment of speaking with him, I thought I had made a horrible mistake but a few arguments of how lonely his life would be without his family was enough to convince him to end his miseries. However, even if he was in the pantry with all the poisoned food, I never really expected him to eat so much of it and die in such a way. I had felt a minimum of pain but it was most likely regret once I found him on the ground, his face blue. I only wished that we could have had one final battle to determine who really was the strongest of us all because, clearly, I was the shrewdest.

The last few deaths happened rather quickly but I needed to end everything as soon as possible. By then I had lost complete track of how many days had passed by because the thick, black clouds had blocked out all light from illuminating the land and informing any of us whether it was day or night. When America was found dead, I was rather surprised that Romano was the one to snap. If it had to be anyone, I would assume it to be Germany but his rough military training was probably the reason to why he hadn't lost such control. I had followed Romano out of the house and to the hill where he met his demise. I had felt such hatred towards him at the time do to his relations to Italy – or _Veneziano_ – and couldn't have felt more satisfied by his death because he wasn't the one I hated the most. I thought it was rather funny how his body was impaled on one of the sharp rocks at the bottom that had been sculpted skillfully by the sea; it really did feel like an epic Hollywood scene in which an important character dies.

Afterwards there was the murder of Germany, which was more like a suicide since I didn't do much of anything to have him pull the trigger. What had added to the wonder of his death was that he had confessed his love to Italy at the very end and not waited to hear that his feelings were returned. However, what pleased me most was the pain it brought to Italy.

My hate towards Italy is something can barely be comprehended if one hasn't suffered as much as I. When I was one, where there was only me, I had the greatest empire of all and living was blissful and quaint. But the second the ground cracked beneath my feet, the Ancients and China – though I guess he can still be categorized as an Ancient as well – emerged thus destroying any evidence that there was once just me and ravaging what was once mine. They twisted the beauty of my land as to mould it into what they thought was fit but was actually just a horrid mess that ruined the old beauty that I had thought to be eternal.

All the while this was happening, what was left of mine was destroyed and slowly taken from me, shrinking as the power of the others grew and suddenly, the memory elapses and al I can now remember is being a child with all the others I once knew. And as I tried to regain my power, my land, everything that was once mine, I noticed that all had begun to fear me and I couldn't understand why, what had I done?

Over come with loneliness and confusion, I had secluded myself and found the only protection necessary in rarely displaying my emotions and threatening those who dared to take my land – or attempt. I had given them all a reason to fear me, a reason to steer clear but the desire to be loved and desired by others remained, regardless the annihilation of my emotions. And, one day, I came upon Italy.

We were both young, I had decided to wander away from the land of frost that I occupied to see the rest of what used to be mine and found him. He had a brother that might as well have been violent and rude but loved him and protected him – even if he was weak and a wimp – as best as he could. And then Italy also had Austria and Hungary to act like parental figures to him and raise him to be the best he could be with love and support – something I lacked even from my sisters. All in all, he was loved by all, pampered by all and there was nothing more I wanted than everything he had.

I tried to be as loved as he, I tried to smile but it only came out as creepy and disturbing even if it was genuine. I tried to be caring, to show love and affection as to have it in return but such actions seemed odd to others and figured they were for manipulation. Basically, everything I did to be loved backfired some how and I figured that the only way to appease this feeling of affection would be by having the other nations disappear. It wasn't like they were supposed to be there in the first place.

But I wanted Italy to suffer the most. It was because of he that I had developed the need for affection – or more the addicting curiosity. He had everything I had worked for aimlessly that had always been in vain so I wanted to take it all away and rub it in his face. Oh, I hated him, I hated him so much and even in death, I still do.

When the time came for Italy to die, I had so much fun reminding him of what was going to happen. Of course, I rubbed it in his face that everyone he loved would die and or was dead just to remind him that his world had crumbled just as mine had. And when he showed no sign of emotion, I lost it completely and smashed him into a pulp with my fists only before pulling out my dagger and snapped his neck, carved his eyes out and stabbed him in the back a few times. I had picked up the body during my assault and when I had felt him go limp in my grip, I dropped the body to have him fall over Germany and intertwine their lifeless hands together.

And the rest is unimportant. The leaders had come as expected and were baffled to find their representatives dead and mutilated but were more preoccupied by the reaction of their populations to the lack of stability.

Up until now, the only country that has fallen due to the lack of a representative was Italy which – I won't hide it – has rendered me rather happy. Germany, on the other hand has regained itself thanks to Prussia taking over as the new representative but that won't last for long because he's next on the list. All of the other countries are in a state of uncertainty but only I can tell that none of them will make it out of their slump. Needless to say, whatever happens next is a mystery even to me.

Now it's time to consider my plan to rid myself of the ten new chosen ones and soon enough, the rest of nuisance of the world as to return everything to one. Once upon a time, there was only one and it was swell because there was only _meant_ to be _one_. However, something disastrous happened and others emerged but, soon enough, the wrong will be righted and there will be just _one_ again.

That One will be me.

* * *

**So Russia being the murderer is actually kind of a spoiler to who the killer is in the actual Agatha Christie novel of And Then There Were None but, in my defence, it wasn't the ending I planned from the start U_U**

**Russia only ended up getting his own alternative ending because when my friend LM saw me writing this story, he asked me who the murderer was and I wouldn't answer so he said: "It has to be the Russian guy" and when I asked why he was like: "Cuz Russians are kick ass" which was good enough for me so he got his own ending xP**

**This means that the NEXT ENDING was the one I originally planned and we'll get to see it the second you click the next chapter button!**

**SO SEE YOU IN THE NEXT, FINAL CHAPTER OF THUS THEY ALL DIED!**


	11. ENDING 2 - A Vengeance with No End

**QUICK BTWs THAT I HOPE YOU READ: I READ ALL OF THE REVIEWS I SWEAR BUT I DIDN'T ANSWER ANY OF THEM BECAUSE I DIDN'T WANT TO ACCIDENTALLY GIVE AWAY SOME INFO ON WHO THE MURDERER WAS SO KNOW THAT I LOVE ALL 32 or 34 OF YOU THAT COMMENTED ON CHAPTER 9 BUT COULDN'T RESPOND BECAUSE OF THIS ):**

**I was actually uber sad that I couldn't answer...**

**Anyways, this was the original ending I had in mind since the VERY beginning so I hope you enjoy!**

**PS: There might be a few mistakes here and there that say Russia is the murderer but that's because I just re-edited last chapter so kindly inform me if you notice said mistakes :D**

**BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME TO THOSE WHO GUESSED WRONG BEING:**

The Leaf 180, peanut4th, bandgeek5100, Moonlightpheonix-xX, Ravenwood316, , Gabriel Nichole, Guest, ThatPurplyThing, Annablink, tttooohappy, celestialokami, forgottologin (Guest), Maya Gordelia, maLOVESkk, NaruSasuXSasoDei, Fruitjuice100 and Nameless Naridam.

**So if your name didn't pop up in the list above it's because your guess or one of them was right xP**

**NOW ENJOY!**

* * *

The following day marked the end of the torrid storm that had not ceased until all of my victims would lay on the ground dead. How fortunate I had been to have Mother Nature on my side during this plan of mine that would return me to the top, where I had once been.

As expected, a few hours following sunrise, twenty planes made their way to my lonesome island, only half of them landed to pick up their countries. They had been rather calm as they excited their aircraft but once they spotted what remained of the dismantled corpse of France spread across the runaway, their attitudes changed dramatically.

"Who is that!?" Demanded the American president, scanning the eyes of the other leaders of the world. "Tell me that's not one of our representatives!"

Ironically, the French president peered closer to one of the bits of France – that part of what remained of his head – only to recognize the silky blond hair that had been ruined by the explosion and the rain.

"France…" he whispered incredulously. "It's France…"

"How is that possible?" The German Chancellor asked searching the others for answers. "They're countries; they can't die from physical wounds unless the land is falling…"

"The economy's not all that good…" The French President admitted, "But it wasn't bad enough as to have him die from it…"

"What about the others?" The Canadian Prime Minister queried as he scanned the surroundings, "Where are the others?"

Worry overtook the leaders of the world and they all dashed towards the mansion along with a few guards to aid them if need would ever be. The first thing all of them noticed was the pool of blood at the bottom of the stairs and then its trail going in two directions; one of the leading into a small corridor, the other one leading up the stairs.

"Fuck…" the American President swore, "What the hell happened here?"

"Hell itself, most likely…" the Russian President hissed. "I'm heading upstairs to see where that end of the trail leads." He declared quickly as he began running up the stairs with his guards.

"I'll come too." The Italian Prime Minister said chasing after the Russian leader.

"Then I'm going to see where the other trail leads to." The Chinese President announced to his turn; the German Chancellor and Canadian Prime Minister decided to tag along as well.

The other remaining leaders had come to a consensus of exploring the other ends of the house in the hopes of finding their countries alive and safe but, of course, they wouldn't.

The Russian President and the Italian Prime Minister arrived to the top of the staircase and were confronted by two corridors. The trail of blood led to two different directions and thus the Russian leader decided to go left while the other would go right.

Through the quick investigation of all rooms, the two found that each trail of blood led to the crypt of Canada and the other led to England. The state of their bodies was horrid to the point of having nausea overtake all of them almost threatening each to spill out the contents of their stomach.

Once they managed to regain themselves, they had decided to look through all the other rooms finding the corpse of China, Japan, the gathering of most of France's limbs and the burnt body of Russia.

While five of them separated to investigate the ends of both blood trails, the five remaining world leaders had ventured into the living room where they found mattresses, a card game but most importantly the corpse of Germany and Italy.

The two were arranged as if they had committed mutual suicide but the wounds on the Italian were what gave away the murder that had occurred. I had snapped his neck and carved his eyes out and stabbed him in the back a few times – not necessarily in that order. All I can really say about that death was that he suffered greatly before his heart stopped having his body fall over Germany.

Oddly enough, their hands intertwined as Italy had fallen over. I had considered severing the bond but decided it would be more appropriate to leave them be. It would add to the pain the leaders would feel upon finding them – which it did.

"What the fuck…" the American President breathed with a heavy sigh. "This is horrible…"

"I just what to know who the bloody hell did this…" the English Prime Minister growled. "Which bloody idiot gave out information on the representatives and who was the twisted arse that did all of this…"

"I'm more curious on the how." The Japanese Prime Minister spoke quietly and calmly. "We're all aware that the representatives were immortal and that no physical wounds could kill them unless certain conditions were met but none of them were met…the murderer found a loop hole and killed all of them brutally, but the loop hole is a mystery to all of us…isn't it?"

All of them nodded, admitting that none of them knew about a loophole to kill off their land's representatives.

"I think the course of action we'll have to take is rather simple." The French President declared, "We'll have to start an international investigation to see which country has the loop hole."

"It's not that simple." The English Prime Minister retorted, "We'll need to keep the reasons to this investigation on the down low and focus on controlling the land. Who knows what will happen now that some of the representatives are dead? They were essential to the land's stability."

And at that moment, the five others that had left to investigate the end of the blood trails returned. "We found nothing on our end." The Chinese President informed, "Except for this."

He handed a journal to the American President who took it warily and read the only thing left in it. "_Five little nations, one of them ignored, He wandered off to find the truth, and there were four._"

"That bastard's sick…" the American President growled closing the book harshly.

"News isn't too good on our end." The Russian President declared, "We discovered the corpse of China, Canada, England, Japan, Russia and the remaining limbs of France."

"Japan!?" The Japanese leader exclaimed.

"It's not pretty." The Italian Prime Minister informed. "You might not want to see…"

But the Japanese Prime Minister had made up his mind and dashed up stairs to find the corpse of his representative as did the other leaders who were informed of the death of their representatives.

"What about America?" The American President asked. "Did you find him?"

The Russian shook his head. "_Nyet_. The ones that have yet to be found are America, Romano – Italy's brother." He listed.

The remaining leaders explored the rest of my home, shortly finding America, his face tainted blue just like I had left him, dead in the pantry. The American President cursed and mourned the loss of his country but his American curiosity kicked in and he soon followed the Russian President and the Italian Prime Minister out of the house to discover the last corpse.

They found Romano after venturing around and finding the location of the bonfire. His body had started to rip from the tugging and pulling of the waves but the sight was gruesome all the same. Some fish had also started to wander around the rocks and nibble on the small bits of flesh that dipped into the water; one would have been able to spot the perfect white of the bone found in Romano's index.

The Italian leader couldn't control his stomach; he turned away and spilled whatever he may have eaten in the plane on the ground. "_Mio dio_…" he groaned, "Who would have done such a thing…?"

"A mental bastard, that's who." The American President spat tearing his gaze away from the horrendous sight.

"We still need an identity." The Russian leader stated, "No crime as horrible as this should go unpunished. We just need to know who."

"Exactly…" the Italian agreed dabbing his mouth with a handkerchief. "Who…?"

* * *

What fools!

Idiots!

I gave them all the hints necessary that could have saved them! I gave them everything they needed but the idiots were blind or simply…stupid...yes! They were stupid! However, that time has passed with decades. The investigation they had envisioned had taken place but it had never succeeded.

For more reasons than one.

The recipe for the mortality elixir was something I found after snooping around for a long time through the belongings of England. The second I found it, I memorized it and then burned it immediately so that the secret would rest with me and me only.

And now, the time has finally come for me to repeat this cycle anew with my newest victims. However, before I decide how to go about my new murders I feel the need to describe in detail the way I had come to my salvation with my first successful murder mystery and the reasons to why I had decided to do so lest I forget along the way.

Once upon a time, there was only me but then my empire cracked beneath my feet due to the inevitability of change and the countries we now know arose from the debris and I emerged practically…invisible. Of course China would have been the only one to know about it but as time ventured forward he must have forgotten what I used to be. Thus explaining the reason why he was the first to disappear of all the other countries. The gravity of his sin was beyond words but then there was also the possibility of his memory returning and him ruining everything so his death was also a safety measure.

Now to enumerate how I committed every murder without being caught. I first began by taking out the only potential threat to revealing my identity, China. Understandably, there's no pleasure in committing a murder mystery if one does not include hints to revealing one's identity because there is then no thrill for the murderer if he does not have to fear discovery. Nevertheless there is a limit to everything. Anyhow, the feast I had prepared for them was a perfect success merely because of luck. Anyone could have taken a portion of noodles with the specific poisoned garnish and devoured it thus ending them, but thankfully the one to consume it had been China. Hypothetically speaking, if it had been another, the outcome to this series of murder would have been completely different potentially ending with my demise and humiliation.

Following China's death was the one of the country of romance and wine; France. That one wasn't necessarily planed, it if had been anyone else, I would have been content for I knew that France wouldn't have been a particularly cunning detective or useful asset to ceasing the murders.

Next up was the murder of Japan. I had always been rather weary of said country because, even if he was shy and socially awkward, he definitely wasn't an idiot. I had noticed him mutter to himself a few times – as his habit was to mumble everything he thought when he was concentrating very hard on something. I heard but a few things that were audible enough for me to know that he was on the road of discovering who the murderer was thus alerting me to act. Even if Japan was meant to be one of the first few to pass away, I hadn't planned for him to be so soon. Besides China, none of them could have identified me with the hints I left behind however, Japan must have been shrewder then I had assumed. The most likely outcome was that he guessed who it was and my revelation confirmed everything nevertheless, he was dealt with rapidly, the added bonus that Germany had left his room wide open for me to venture forth, and take away one of my confiscated weapons was dearly welcomed.

Afterwards, there was the death of Russia. During that day I had witnessed an insightful conversation between Russia, America and Italy. Italy was most curious. The weak nation had been so upset by the chain of events that he had grown the amount of courage necessary to speak his melancholy to the strongest nations the world had to behold. I enjoyed watching Russia explain to him the reason for my actions and lecturing the both of them on hate. And when the night fell, Russia was fortunate enough to have the first shift guarding the bonfire – well it was unfortunate for him but fortunate for me… anyways, I had crept up behind him and shocked him to no end when I began to speak Russian. My accent must have the most infuriating moment of that part when I think about it since it was definitely from somewhere Russia couldn't identify. Which is logical since I am from nowhere…yet…I am from everywhere.

Taking advantage of his puzzlement, I struck immediately knocking him out and then throwing him into the fire. I watched as the corpse burned and it was around the end that I noticed that the scarf had fallen off at some point. Perhaps it was better that way since, after strapping it back to the dead corpse, the world would know that the most feared nation had fallen to my wrath.

After Russia's demise, it was time to end the life of England. Of course, I had never planned for it to work so brilliantly but, in a way, it was to be expected because England was well known for having delusions of faeries quite often. Russia's death must have pushed the limits of his remaining sanity. Nonetheless, I allowed him run around my mansion like a lunatic before finally deciding to put an end to him. I was surprise how affectionate he seemed to show himself towards me but he probably thought I was a ghost or maybe just a faery – something supernatural that would not harm him or lead him to his death. But he was wrong. He was so compliant I almost felt sorry for what I was about to do – or make him do. With a few honey coated words I convinced him to claw through his throat and end his life because it would the only way for him to escape this nightmare and he did just that.

I never expected that death to have such a heavy blow on America. England might as well have been his family and the only father figure in his life but they had gotten into a huge fight some years back and their relationship has been somewhat tense ever since. Nevertheless, if that lost had caused him that much pain, one could only imagine how much more pain was added to the wound once his brother was killed brutally by my hands. Granted I did forget about the invisible nation but only because America always seemed to steal his place or what little presence he already had. I guess, in some way, I did him a favour by killing him and giving him the spot light for once but, in the end, I knew that Canada loved his brother even if he had been oppressed. Canada was actually meant to be killed before Japan but some events had occurred in which Japan was getting too close to solving the mystery yet this allowed Canada to get much further than he. Thankfully, for me, he was ended shortly and no harm was done.

Finally, after some harsh suffering and being accused mercilessly by Germany of being the killer yet defended by Romano, I decided to end America's life. He was in such a broken state of mind and was oozing death that I figured even after I revealed myself; he would still go through with killing himself. It took some time for something to happen thus causing him to leave the security of his three other companions but if I had to suggest anything, it would have been his will to die. Once the three others ran out of the house, chasing after him, fearing that he would be caught by me and killed, I left to find him in the kitchen where he was eyeing the pantry. The last bit of resistance I noticed in his eyes shocked me and at that precise moment of speaking with him, I thought I had made a horrible mistake but a few arguments of how lonely his life would be without his family was enough to convince him to end his miseries. However, even if he was in the pantry with all the poisoned food, I never really expected him to eat so much of it and die in such a way.

The last few deaths happened rather quickly but I needed to end everything as soon as possible. By then I had lost complete track of how many days had passed by because the thick, black clouds had blocked out all light from illuminating the land and informing any of us whether it was day or night. When America was found dead, I was rather surprised that Romano was the one to snap. If it had to be anyone, I would assume it to be Germany but his rough military training was probably the reason to why he hadn't lost such control of his mind. I had followed Romano out of the house and to the hill where he met his demise. I had felt such hatred towards him at the time do to his relations to Italy – or _Veneziano_ – and couldn't have felt more satisfied by his death because he wasn't the one I hated the most. I thought it was rather funny how his body was impaled on one of the sharp rocks at the bottom that had been sculpted skillfully by the sea; it really did feel like an epic Hollywood scene in which an important character dies.

Afterwards there was the murder of Germany, which was more like a suicide since I didn't do much of anything to have him pull the trigger. What had added to the wonder of his death was that he had confessed his love to Italy at the very end and not waited to hear that his feelings were returned. However, what pleased me most was the pain it brought to Italy.

My hate towards Italy is something can barely be comprehended if one hasn't suffered as much as I. When I was one, where there was only me, I had the greatest empire of all and living was blissful and quaint. But the second the ground cracked beneath my feet, the Ancients and China – though I guess he can still be categorized as an Ancient as well – emerged thus destroying any evidence that there was once just me and ravaging what was once mine. They twisted the beauty of my land as to mould it into what they thought was fit but was actually just a horrid mess that ruined the old beauty that I had thought to be eternal.

And one day, I discovered Italy. I was rather surprised at the time that it had taken me so long to discover the new country what with my seemingly endless wandering. He had a brother that might as well have been violent and rude but loved him and protected him – even if he was weak and a wimp – as best as he could. And then Italy also had Austria and Hungary to act like parental figures to him and raise him to be the best he could be with love and support – something I lacked even from my sisters. All in all, he was loved by all, pampered by all and there was nothing more I wanted than everything he had. And I hated it.

I hated how the arrival of new countries had inspired the feeling of being loved by others, of being affectionate and friendly towards others. I hated that this sick dependence of others birthed inside of me thus resulting in my craving for the attention of others. I hated all of it mostly because I could never have it, no matter how hard I tried.

No one remembered me. No one knew me. And the knowledge of me barely lasted a day whenever I introduced myself to others even though I returned to someone of them day after day, hoping to break the curse.

But the curse remained.

I was still wrapped in loneliness and the happiness Italy spawned wherever he went only seemed to inspire that hatred which reminded me that, once upon a time, there was only one; and that One was me. The others, those that rose from the debris of my fallen empire weren't meant to be there, none of them and so I would have them all disappear anew and return to a life of quaint silence and contentment. I would return to the time where all was mine and where all seemed to be frozen in eternal beauty.

I would return to that time somehow.

And then, I figured out how to do it. Everything was so simple – when said – all I had to do was kill all of the nations that dared declare a piece of _my_ land as their own until none was left alive to have all the landmasses that had broken away from the main return to it's original state. Then and only then would my empire ever return, would my desire for affection cease and then the over encumbering loneliness be forgotten.

But I wanted Italy to suffer the most. It was because of he that I had developed the need for affection regardless of the fact that I was half dead and that I couldn't even remain in memories. He had everything I had worked for aimlessly that had always been in vain so I wanted to take it all away and rub it in his face. Oh, I hated him, I hated him so much and even in death, I still do.

When the time came for Italy to die, I had so much fun reminding him of what was going to happen. Of course, I rubbed it in his face that everyone he loved would die and or was dead just to remind him that his world had crumbled just as mine had. And when he showed no sign of emotion, I lost it completely and smashed him into a pulp with my fists only before pulling out my dagger and snapped his neck, carved his eyes out and stabbed him in the back a few times. I had picked up the body during my assault and when I had felt him go limp in my grip, I dropped the body to have him fall over Germany and intertwine their lifeless hands together.

And the rest is unimportant. The leaders had come as expected and were baffled to find their representatives dead and mutilated but were more preoccupied by the reaction of their populations to the lack of stability. They had quickly assembled all the bodies and had thrown secret funerals for each of the fallen as to commemorate them and give their loved ones a beginning to the desperately needed healing process.

Up until now, the only country that has fallen due to the lack of a representative was Italy which – I won't hide it – has rendered me rather happy. Germany, on the other hand has regained itself thanks to Prussia taking over as the new representative but that won't last for long because he's next on the list. All of the other countries are in a state of uncertainty but only I can tell that none of them will make it out of their slump. Needless to say, whatever happens next is a mystery even to me.

Now it's time to consider my plan to rid myself of the ten new chosen ones and soon enough, the rest of nuisance of the world as to return everything to one. Once upon a time, there was only one and it was swell because there was only _meant_ to be _one_. However, something disastrous happened and others emerged but, soon enough, the wrong will be righted and there will be just _one_ again.

That One will be me.

But now, who is that _One_?

That _One_ is the almighty _Pangaea _that was never meant to be destroyed, dissembled, erased. Nonetheless, this grieving of my loss that came with hate, rage and vengeance will soon be appeased once they all die and everything returns to one.

There was only, really, ever meant to be _one_.

* * *

**I guess this one was pretty obvious but there's one thing I'd like to clarify**

_IT'S_ _NOT AN OC AND IT WILL NEVER BE AN OC!_

**I know it's a bold (lol the irony) arguement since there's no official design for Pangaea but notice that I didn't put a description of what he looked like because the second Himaruya comes out with a design for the guy (assuming it will be a guy) you'll think back (maybe) on this story and be like: 'So that's what he looked like...'**

**Anyways, if I had to give him a physical appearance though, it'd be something that isn't common in any country and that is very rare. So black hair with blue eyes and very pale skin (I believe it's called a dark albino but I may be retarded U_U) that or mismatched eyes because those are just badass!**

**So yea, noticed that I wrote 'BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME' and that's because I'm writing a new murder mystery (I'm not sure if it's going to make it pass the 3rd chapter mark but who knows) called : **_Circus_ Freak**. In which Arthur Kirkland is one of the best detectives of the London Police Deparment and, while on vacation, is mixed up in a bizzare Circus murder in which the victim is the French Ring Master and the murderer is one of the Freaks.**

**I actually quoted Tyrion Lanister at some point in the first chapter so if you're a GoT fan and know who I'm talking about...*HIGH FIVE!***

* * *

_SAPPY GOODBYES AND SERIOUS BUSINESS_

* * *

**It really was a pleasure writing and entertainning you all. I really enjoyed reading your guesses for the order of deaths and the identity(ies) of the killer so I hope that you guys aren't too disappointed with the endings and such. I'm not sure I'm going to miss this story but I do feel something similar to when I had to say my goodbyes for **_World War III_** (the first series I completed - about 23 chapters).**

**Anyways, I don't know if I'll see any of you in my other stories or in **_Circus Freak_** (if I do pass the 3rd chapter mark) so I want to say thank you for letting me entertain you and thank you for paying attention to this story and seeing it through 'till the end :)**

**OMG, I'm getting sentimental here...**

**One last thing before I go, I'm not planning on making a sequel in which the ten other nations I mention die so don't ask me to because I won't xP**

**FAREWELL AND SEE YOU IN ANOTHER STORY!**

* * *

_IF YOU LIKED THIS THAN YOU MIGHT LIKE..._

* * *

**A Devil's Whisper - **Alfred suffers the lost of his twin who commited suicide. As he speculates what pushed him to do so, he realises that the people closest to him are at fault. "Mattie deserves justice." Characters deaths and snapped America no specific pairing **(COMPLETE - 5 chapters)**

**Detective Bonnefoy - **Lord Edelstein was found murdered in his part-time home in England. The case has not been progressing for a month, and so the English call their last resort: the famous dectective, Francis Bonnefoy, who is to be paired with Arthur Kirkland. With a tangible tension rising from love and nationality, will the two manage to solve the case and find love? FrUk and France x Jeanne **(IN PROGRESS/HIATUS - 15 chapters)**

**The Asylum - **My heart is beating so fast and loudly, I constantly fear that it will give me away. This is so shameful, I'm a hero, I shouldn't be cowering in fear like this…but as well as being a hero, I am no fool. I know that the second I emerge from this place, the only safe spot, it'll be the end of me but I need to find Mattie. No pairing. **(COMPLETE - 7 chapters)**

**Chasing Insanity - **One day, the nightmare will return and then you will lose your life. You do not just run away. The inevitable is inevitable. I should have known that returning to our normal lives after what happened all those years ago would be impossible. In my darkest hours, as I run around the country to find my brother before the cops do, I still believe in miracles. I will get Mattie back. No pairing. SEQUEL OF THE ASYLUM. **(IN PROGRESS - 3 chapters)**

**Circus Freak - **While on a well deserved break, detective Arthur Kirkland stumbles upon and saves an odd Ring Master named Francis Bonnefoy. Rewarded with a free show courtesy of the World Circus, he soon finds himself intertwined in an odd murder that he alone may solve. What is up with these Freaks? **(PENDING - 1 chapter)**


End file.
